Lacoste is the first fashion brand to adopt a new AI-powered anti-counterfeit technology. Developed by French tech company Cypheme, the Vrai AI anti-counterfeiting tool has the ability to identify a fraud through visual analysis.
Vrai AI can use a photo of a product or a specific detail of an item to examine microscopic visual details to differentiate between a genuine piece and a copy. The technology boasts a 99.7 percent level of accuracy and eliminates the need for anti-counterfeit modifications such as special labels or hidden details.
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For Lacoste, Cypheme’s Vrai AI will focus on the brand’s iconic and often-copied crocodile logo to identify fakes. The brand has incorporated Cypheme’s technology in its warehouses to assist human anti-counterfeit experts in identifying and removing fake products from the market.
Counterfeiting remains a persistent problem for the fashion industry, particularly luxury brands. In its annual State of the Fake report, authentication specialist Entrupy found that nearly 9 percent of items analyzed by its AI tools in 2023 were unidentified or inauthentic. That’s an increase of 0.8 percent year-over-year.
Social media has contributed to the proliferation of counterfeit luxury goods, with influencers on TikTok and other channels touting luxury dupes via hashtags such as #RepTok (replica-tok) and keywords such as “Lacoste cheap” and “Lacoste dupe.”
Lacoste has long championed anti-counterfeiting efforts. The company has a code of conduct and ethics charter that requires employees and suppliers to adhere to its authenticity standards. Lacoste also plays an active role with anti-counterfeiting groups such as the International Trademark Association and French industry association UNIFAB.
Earlier this year, Lacoste won a trademark infringement suit against Cartelo, an apparel brand operated by Nanji E-Commerce in China. The suit claimed that Cartelo’s use of a crocodile trademark looking toward the left caused market confusion with Lacoste’s crocodile, which looks to the right. The Beijing Higher People’s Court agreed that Cartelo infringed on Lacoste’s well-established logo and ruled that Nanji E-Commerce and its affiliated companies must cease using the crocodile trademark and pay $2.05 million in compensation to Lacoste.
