Counterfeiting has always been a problem in the merchandise world. Dating back to the Roman Empire, people were selling counterfeit branded togas outside of the Colosseum after gladiator battles.
OK, that’s (probably) not true, but in the modern era, counterfeit T-shirts and other promotions are incredibly common outside of sporting events and concerts, and it’s an ongoing battle to crack down on it.
Merch Traffic, the company behind the merchandise for Metallica, which itself has done plenty of marketing over the years and is also no stranger to litigation against those it perceives to be cheating the band out of money (see the battle against Napster), filed a lawsuit in the St. Louis federal court last week to try to keep counterfeit merchandise from being sold in the city around their concerts this coming weekend.
The lawsuit claims copyright infringement “by various John and Jane Does seeking to sell mercy with a counterfeit Metallica label,” according to Loudwire, effectively asking the court to allow law enforcement to confiscate and destroy counterfeit items.
Metallica isn’t the first band to do something like this. In 2016, AC/DC filed a federal lawsuit to request U.S. marshals arrest counterfeiters outside of their shows. In 2017, LiveNation collaborated with the New York Police Department to crack down on people selling John Mayer merchandise outside of Madison Square Garden. Harry Styles did something similar that same year.
If Metallica was worried about the dawn of music piracy, they have even more concern over their merchandise in the era of streaming, where bands who are not selling out stadiums make a good chunk of their money from selling merchandise like T-shirts and other apparel. Sure, the guys from Metallica will still be able to pay their bills even if people are selling T-shirts in the parking lot, but the lawsuit sets a precedent for other bands who aren’t at that level of fame, and keeps merchandise sales in-house.
Part of the lawsuit also states that bootleg apparel is often of an inferior quality than the official stuff, thus protecting the image of Metallica by ensuring all of the merchandise is of a quality they approve of.
As bands like Metallica continue to age into “legacy act” territory, after all, their brand is on the same level of importance as the music. Eventually they will stop touring, but Metallica T-shirts will still be around. So, the band needs to make sure that brand continues to perform at its highest level, if and when they aren’t shredding so hard themselves.
Simultaneously in the sports world, Major League Baseball is taking steps to warn fans about counterfeit merchandise during the World Series in Dallas and Phoenix.
“We think fans deserve only high-quality, officially licensed merchandise, so we’re partnering with federal, state and local authorities as well as the MLB to reduce the illegal importation and sale of counterfeit sports apparel and entertainment products,” National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) director Jim Mancuso said in a statement.
During last year’s World Series, authorities nabbed nearly 200,000 counterfeit sports-related products, totaling about $22.7 million as part of “Operation Team Player,” which included seizures of more than $120 million during the Super Bowl in 2020.
Protecting a brand, whether it’s the biggest sporting event in the world, the biggest metal band in the world, or just a local coffee shop, is crucial for your customers. They obviously know the value of a promotional item, otherwise why would you be working with them? So, it’s vital for them to make sure their brand is used the way they want it to be used. That includes the quality of the product, the colors matching the branding correctly, and everything else that you as a distributor can control.
