Stepping up the game: How Puma took on online counterfeiters

The story behind how Red Points helped Puma takedown 760,000 counterfeit products online with a scalable solution that boosted their global protection

93.4%

Enforcement success rate

$500,223,798

Estimated value of counterfeit products enforced in 16 months

760,000

Infringement takedowns

The Challenge

Due to its global presence and popularity, Puma has been proactively monitoring online counterfeiting issues for years. However, as the ecommerce world continues to evolve and expand, the problem of online counterfeiting has intensified. The emergence of platforms like TikTok and short videos, such as Reels, has resulted in issues such as bad actors redirecting users to stand-alone websites, leading to new brand protection challenges.

To make matters worse, over time infringers were getting smarter – they found loopholes such as hiding Puma’s logo from their infringing listings to make it harder to detect and enforce their assets.

These infringements resulted in lost revenue, a confused consumer base, and a damaged reputation, making it a priority for Puma to act fast to find an effective and comprehensive solution.

The Solution

Red Points was able to support Puma APAC’s team brand protection efforts by utilizing advanced counterfeit monitoring and automated takedown systems. Using bots, Red Points scanned multiple Southeast Asian marketplaces and platforms 24/7, including Alibaba, AliExpress, Lazada, Shopee, Made in China, DHgate, Coupang, and Auction Korea, identifying hundreds of thousands of counterfeit listings.

Our coverage extended to 65 platforms across different countries. With our comprehensive, always-on brand protection platform, we protected five trademarks for Puma, freeing up their time to enhance their online presence and strengthen their brand protection strategy.

The Result

Since working with Red Points, Puma has been able to take down over 760,000 infringements. Each of these infringements was harming Puma’s growth, and ultimately revenue.

The estimated value of counterfeit products that Red Points has enforced on behalf of Puma is $583,175,574. This was accomplished through a combination of first-class technology and a deep understanding of the legal landscape in the APAC region. Red Points’ Revenue Recovery Platform also provides insightful data reports to inform Puma’s ongoing global brand protection strategies and prevent future infringements from occurring.

PUMA
Puma is the largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. Headquartered in Bavaria, Germany, Puma employs more than 18,000 people around the world.

For more than 70 years, Puma has been creating fast products for fast athletes with one goal in mind: to be the Fastest Sports brand in the World. Their products help to enhance sports such as football, basketball, running, golf, and motorsports.

puma.com
Fashion
Bavaria, Germany

Fashion

“I consider Red Points an extension of my team. They provide us with a really useful portal to use and a great team to support our day-to-day business… And, most importantly, they have the most cutting-edge technology in the market.”

Wei Zhang,
Senior Counsel Brand Protection

Request Demo

Manual searching was delivering poor results

Prior to working with Red Points, Puma found that many of their former suppliers did a lot of the searches manually, which was not enough to deal with the high volume of counterfeits.

To address this challenge, Puma decided to leverage advanced technology and machine learning capabilities from Red Points. As a result, Puma was able to effectively detect and remove thousands of counterfeit listings on various online marketplaces and platforms, and address one of its biggest challenges – the high volume of infringements.

A focused, collaborative strategy helped Puma recover revenue

For Puma, protecting its brand from counterfeiters was not only about preserving its reputation but also about ensuring that it did not lose revenue to infringers. Online monitoring was crucial in helping the company generate revenue that would have otherwise been lost to counterfeiters.

Through its partnership with Red Points, Puma was able to take a proactive approach to brand protection and minimize the financial impact of counterfeiters, by identifying and removing counterfeit listings before they could cause significant harm to the brand and its bottom line. This allowed Puma to focus on growing its business and expanding its reach in the global market.

Supporting business decisions and unlocking the potential of Puma’s teams

With Red Points’ assistance, Puma was able to effectively quantify the impact of their brand protection efforts. Tailored and up-to-date reporting enabled Puma to have a better overview of the impact of their work and leverage data which in turn helped to support different departments across the company.

With Red Points’ support and guidance on all aspects of brand protection, Puma has been able to streamline its brand protection efforts, freeing up internal resources, and allowing them to focus on other critical areas of the business.