Cartier Sues HauteLook for Over $2 Million

There’s been lots of talk in the past few months about flash sales sites shilling fake or grey market merchandise. However, we never expected HauteLook, one of the most respectable–and successful–sites around, to be caught up in this mess.

Cartier, which is owned by luxury conglomerate Richemont, is suing the Los Angeles-based company for over $2 million, first reported this morning on SheFinds. According to court documents obtained by Fashionista–some of which you can review below–the Cartier watches sold by HauteLook are secondhand. One of Hautelook’s selling points is that they work directly with the brands, and that they sell new–not used–merchandise, so Cartier feels that HauteLook has made false claims when it comes to the brand.

To be clear, Cartier has not accused HauteLook of selling out-n-out fake products.

Could this be a case of a big company picking on a little company? Surely. But false claims are serious. We don’t feel so bad for Cartier, but we feel bad for HauteLook’s customers.

We reached out to HauteLook–for now, they have no comment. If we hear more from them, we’ll let you know.