While serving an eviction notice on Long Island for failure to pay rent, law enforcement discovered an established counterfeit operation which uncovered more than 3 660 pairs of counterfeit UGG boots worth more than an estimated 700 000 US dollars.

The raid disrupted an organized operation that assembled and shipped counterfeit goods across the country. The total seizure included counterfeits of other premium brands estimated to be worth over 1 million US dollars.

UGG continues to be very active in fighting counterffeit and the brand’s Counterfeit Education tab on UGG.com provides tips on how to identify fakes and how to get reimbursed if you fall victim, while it educates consumers on the dangers of supporting counterfeiters, and provides links to its dedicated social pages for reporting fake sites and a list of authorized retailers who can guarantee authentic purchases.

“Since 2009, we have taken legal action against over 60 000 websites selling counterfeit products, we have removed over 590 000 counterfeit listings on various online sites such as Taobao and eBay and seized over 2.2 million counterfeit products before they entered the market”, commented Dave Powers, CEO and President of Deckers Brands.

Many consumers may not know that buying counterfeit products has a significant impact on the global economy, eliminating tens of thousands of jobs with legitimate businesses and costing the economy an estimated 600 billion US dollars of revenue a year. Worse yet, they are not accountable to human rights and environmental regulations nor do they adhere to child labor laws, anti-sweatshop laws, or restricted substances laws. This puts workers, the environment and consumers at risk.

Founded in 1978 in California, the UGG brand is a lifestyle brand with more than 1 billion US dollars in annual sales, offering men’s, women’s and kid’s footwear as well as loungewear, outerwear, home products, cold weather accessories and handbags.