Online shopping platform Skroutz has obtained a temporary injunction in an Athens court against Meta Platforms over the misuse of its trademark and logo in bogus advertisements on its Facebook and Instagram sites.
The company says that for almost a year, unauthorized pages on these social media platforms have been using its logo to run fake advertisements, such as offers for boxes of “undeliverable” items and heavily discounted items for as little as 2 euros. The phenomenon is not limited to Skroutz but affects dozens of other brands, harming consumers and damaging the credibility of businesses, the company notes.
Skroutz said that its legal team has diligently followed the reporting process that Meta itself established to address these fake advertisements. However, it described Meta’s response as inadequate and wholly reactive, where it only deletes pages after the affected companies flag them.
The injunction obliges Meta to cease all infringements of Skroutz’s intellectual property (trademarks, domain name etc), to remove all fake advertisements using the Skroutz logo from its platforms, and to prevent the creation of pages whose content includes Skroutz’s distinctive features.
The decision imposes a €3,000 fine and one month’s detention on Meta’s legal representatives in Ireland for any violations of the decision. Skroutz said that since the decision was issued, it has recorded more than 150 violations of its trademark to date on Facebook.