Courtesy of Ingrid Chua
World
Inside the Rise of Luxury Fakes: How Influencers and VIP Gifts Sparked a New Counterfeit Market
Call her Sherlock Hermès. Ingrid Chua, a journalist and blogger behind the Bag Hag Diaries, started noticing a strange phenomenon back in 2019, mostly on Instagram and high-end resale sites. They were flooded with oddball luxury items—pouches, tote bags, and beach towels—priced at a fraction of, say, a leather purse. These goodies were touted as never-for-sale VIP gifts, treats handed to friends of the brand, influencers, or free-spending clients. Chua’s suspicions were piqued by the volumes on offer, perhaps 20 or more from a single seller who might also offer a wait list for the next delivery. “If you’re a VIP, you might get one or two things, but how do they have batch after batch of them? It was seriously shady,” she scoffs.
So, Chua started snooping, setting up fake Insta handles to query the sellers on that platform. It was obvious to her that most, if not all, of these items were counterfeit. When she started sharing screengrabs of her exchanges on her Instagram Stories, the abuse began. “I got threats, things like ‘We’re going to sue you, you’re making us lose revenue.’” Undeterred, Chua kept digging, even hiring a trio of photographers to analyze images shared as part of the sales pitches. Take the makeup pouch purportedly offered by Chanel Beauty as a thank you to certain customers that was pictured on one of the brand’s makeup counters. “Guess what? All three of them said it was superimposed on the image—there was no reflection in the vitrine,” she says.
Chua’s crusade is well-timed. Luxury brands have embraced the trappings of so-called clienteling with more gusto than ever, competing to outdo each other in their cosseting of VICs (Very Important Clients); keeping influencers onside the same way is vital, too. One now-commonplace tactic for both involves creating one-off, branded keepsakes that will be gifted rather than sold; these may be available only to certain buyers or are never even offered in the retail environment. There might be a leather wristlet, a key fob, or a small pouch; Prada sent limited-edition shirts to a small number of VICs as a Christmas gift, while Chanel could send a top buyer some throw pillows as a birthday shoutout.
Still, those who don’t receive such treats still want them and will pay handsomely for that freebie. “I often get sourcing requests for VIP gifts, usually Chanel ones—most recently, it was the free Chanel T-shirt that was sent with invitations to the latest Chanel show in Los Angeles,” says Gab Waller, who runs a business scoring hard-to-find luxury items for clients. In that case, Waller, who is based in California, happened to have a personal friend who received one and was happy to resell it. “It was a one-off exception, because 99 percent of the time, I decline the request,” she says. “With my flat-rate sourcing fee, the price could get high very quickly. And it’s hard for me to justify the resale price on an item that was essentially free. That doesn’t sit right with me.” The fact that most come via the resale market—and have murky provenance as a result—makes Waller even warier.
Delphine Sarfati-Sobreira agrees. The Paris-based executive runs Unifab, or the Union des Fabricants, which effectively campaigns against counterfeiting on all fronts on behalf of 200 or so members, including Hermès, Yves Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga. She cites data that 52 percent of Europeans aged 15 to 24 bought a counterfeit product last year, and in France, just over a third of buyers unknowingly bought a fake online. “The difference between now and 15 years ago, when someone was press or a VIP client and received a gift, they will keep it,” Sarfati-Sobreira tells Robb Report, “Now, with the rise of influencers, they resell it on secondhand platforms. And then counterfeiters see that and decide to sell their own products the same way.” Influencers, she explains, both turned on a spigot of selling VIP gifts on the secondary market while driving up demand for them in the luxury-loving public.
“Gifts have been quietly regifted or resold forever,” says Susan Scafidi, “but in the era of influencers, luxury is being defined as access to experience, [rather] than to goods anyone can buy with enough money. And these items are now proof of that experience.” Scafidi is a Fordham University professor in New York City, with particular expertise in luxury counterfeiting and head of the non-profit Fashion Law Institute. She says these freebies are heavy with “cultural capital,” tokens of clout and access. That little bag on the front-row seat at a show is a heavy hitter for a certain demographic. “They appeal to people who wish they could have been there, and want to emulate the people who were,” Scafidi says.
The surge in branded items that have little to no value—a cotton T-shirt or plastic pouch rather than a leather bag, for example—has been driven by the clampdown in tax law, Scafidi explains, whereby freebies like this are taxable. (Last year’s Oscar gift bag, for example, would trigger at least $46,000 to the IRS, and came with a 1099 to make declaring that debt even easier.) Better, then, to offer something whose value is merely branding rather than the materials from which it’s made. Counterfeiting a logo, of course, is much easier than duplicating workmanship or high-quality hide. Scafidi herself points to a T-shirt sent out by a brand she declines to name citing professional concerns: “On the front, in big bold letters, was the logo and, still attached, was the American Apparel label, too.”
Scafidi adds that there’s a particular wrinkle in American law that makes faking these freebies even more appealing stateside. “U.S. law requires that a trademark be used in commerce to protect it. Something given away in a product category that a brand doesn’t ordinarily produce—a Champagne flute from a company that produces clothing and small leather goods, for example. Technically it wouldn’t be protected.” Household names, she continues, could pursue claims against brand dilution, but anti-counterfeiting controls are much harder to apply to anything that was, at least initially, given rather than sold.
There’s another reason driving the surge in sales of shoddy, or counterfeit, gifts: the explosion of resale sites like TheRealReal or Vinted. Unlike a traditional consignment boutique, which operated on a smaller scale often with regular consignees known to the owner, these are world-spanning businesses with aggressive ambitions to scale. See, for example, how Vestiaire Collective is now run by start-up superstar Max Bittner, whose first business sold for billions to Alibaba, or the blockbuster IPO four years ago from TheRealReal, which raised $300 million (though the shares, priced at $20 for the offering, now hover at barely one-tenth of that). “Once you give the average consumer out there control to post anything in a marketplace, you’re basically putting up a luxury Craigslist,” says Chua, “It’s a free-for-all and caveat emptor. You just have to hope not to get screwed.” Indeed, one reseller—in this case, the decades-old What Goes Around Comes Around in New York—just lost a lawsuit with Chanel around these very items. The French luxury house accused the shop of selling counterfeit goods and promotional items that were not intended for sale. The judge just ruled in Chanel’s favor over everything from trademark infringement to false advertising, landing the reseller with a $4 million bill for damages.
Courtesy of Ingrid Chua
London-based Winston Chesterfield runs his own luxury consultancy, Barton. He says the Internet-driven transformation of the secondary market is fundamental to the problem: “When you do a private show for your ultra-high-end clients, those spending more than $100,000 in a Mayfair townhouse, they’ll give a bag of goodies at the end of it. But the client isn’t interested in them—nine out of 10 people like that you speak to? They’ll give those to their PA or housemaid.” In the past, Chesterfield says, that pass-along treat would have been used or perhaps occasionally sold to a friend. Now, it’s a lucrative moneymaker on eBay, creating a secondary market that’s easily exploited by unscrupulous counterfeiters. Chesterfield echoes Scafidi’s idea that the current quality of these giveaways is also a factor. “They’re producing for the lowest common denominator, pap that the higher-end, higher-value clients don’t want and don’t need. It’s the marketing department taking the initiative, and it’s a little bit out of control.”
Brands, unsurprisingly, aren’t keen to engage on the topic, whether those resale platforms or the designer marques themselves. May Berthelot, who runs the anti-counterfeiting operation at Vinted and has shared social media screeds on this topic, declined to speak to Robb Report. Note, though, that platforms like that are increasingly banning VIP gifts from being offered for sale—the Bittner-run Vestiaire Collective, for example, will not sell “VIP gifts (items received at press or VIP events, items gifted by the brand, free gifts offered in-store as part of a purchase), or items not for sale (including items marked as Not for Sale, samples, packaging etc.).”
Still, perhaps the best way to tackle the issue isn’t policing the sale but polluting the appeal. Harriet Quick cofounded Luminaire, a luxury sourcing start-up aimed at VICs. “I don’t think our clients are that interested in these items, the whole swathe of gifting that goes to influencers,” she says. “It doesn’t suit them, because it’s all a bit too hype-y.” Put simply, such items are both exclusive, and not very exclusive at all. Certainly, anyone trying to offload one online won’t be the original recipient. “The irony of this is that the VIP, that high-spending couture buyer somewhere like Dior or Chanel, probably just gives away the gift to someone or, quite frankly, throws it in the trash,” says Barton’s Chesterfield, of their tarnished appeal. “They’re very unlikely to bother taking pictures, writing up a description, and then chucking it online.”
Authors
Mark Ellwood
World
Meta appeals landmark jury verdict that found it to blame for social media addiction for young users
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has appealed the verdict of a landmark social media addiction lawsuit in Los Angeles, challenging the jury’s determination that the company designed its platforms to hook young users without concern for their well-being.
Lawyers representing Meta filed a notice of appeal Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The lawyers will provide their arguments related to the appeal in subsequent court filings.
The case centered on a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child and that it worsened her mental health struggles. The jury found that negligence by both Meta and Google-owned YouTube, which was also a defendant in the case, was a substantial factor in causing harm to the young woman, identified in court only by her initials, KGM, and her first name, Kaley.
The jury awarded her $3 million in damages and recommended an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Her lead attorney, Mark Lanier, said in a statement Friday that the legal team is expecting the appellate court to “continue the careful application of the law to this case, affirming the verdict of the trial court.”
A notice of appeal starts what can be a lengthy process. A Meta spokesperson provided a statement Friday that they also gave when the jury returned the verdict in March, saying that teen mental health is “profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.”
José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, said in a statement Friday that YouTube plans to appeal and that “these are standard motions for this case to move forward.”
Meta and Google had each filed post-trial motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict — a routinely filed motion by defense lawyers asking a judge to toss out the jury’s verdict — and for a new trial. The trial judge, Carolyn B. Kuhl, denied those motions in early June.
Tech companies like Meta and YouTube are shielded from legal responsibility for content posted by third parties, based on Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. To get around those protections, the plaintiffs focused on the design features of the platforms like “infinite scroll,” or the endless nature of feeds on the platforms, and autoplay functions.
Questions about encroaching into content-related territory were the subject of many objections from the defendants throughout the five-week trial.
The verdict in this case came during a time of legal woes for Meta. A jury in New Mexico returned a verdict finding that Meta’s platforms harm children’s mental health and safety just one day before the California jury reached its decision. The New Mexico jury, siding with state prosecutors who brought the case, landed on a penalty of $375 million. Meta has said the company disagrees with the verdict and will also appeal in that case.
“We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement at the time of the verdicts and again on Friday.
Kaley’s case was a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, and the verdict could influence the outcome of thousands of similar lawsuits accusing social media companies of deliberately causing harm. TikTok and Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. were also initially named as defendants in the case, but each settled for undisclosed sums before the trial began.
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Israel’s leaders are publicly signaling that their country is prepared to strike Iran for a third time, while a U.S. official tells Fox News Digital that Washington remains closely coordinated with Jerusalem.
“The IDF is on high alert and prepared to resume the campaign, regain air superiority, and carry out an independent Israeli strike against Iran to eliminate threats — even for a third time,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Minister Israel Katz said Thursday at a graduation ceremony for the Israeli Air Force’s newest pilots.
“If we have to return, we will return with even greater force,” Katz added.
ISRAEL DEFENSE CHIEF WARNS STRIKES ON IRAN COULD RESUME SOON, SIGNALS CAMPAIGN NOT OVER
U.S. Central Command shared this footage in a July 8, 2026, press release about strikes against Iran. (CENTCOM)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also warned Thursday that Israel’s campaign against Iran was not finished and said Tehran would not be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon, regardless of any agreement reached with Washington.
“The war has not yet ended,” Netanyahu said at the air force ceremony. “Alongside the old challenges, new challenges are emerging. Axes are falling, and axes are rising. We are paying attention to this. We are prepared for every scenario.”
Two Israeli sources told CNN Friday that the Trump administration does not currently want Israel to participate in the latest U.S. strikes against Iran.
“Netanyahu would really want to join the U.S. strikes, but the U.S. doesn’t want Israel involved at the moment,” one of the sources told CNN.
A U.S. official denied the report, telling Fox News Digital, “This is fake news. The United States has a strong relationship with Israel, which contributed to the resounding success of Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury. We remain in close coordination with our Israeli partners.”
Israel first launched a major campaign against Iran in June 2025, with the United States later joining the fighting by striking the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. On Feb. 28, the two allies launched a new, coordinated military campaign against Iran.
While Israeli leaders are openly presenting the military as ready for another campaign, some Israeli officials and analysts say there is little appetite for renewed fighting unless it produces a clear strategic result.
The public warnings may overstate Israel’s desire to reenter the fighting, said Israeli analyst and journalist for Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth, Nadav Eyal.
“On the record, Israel is signaling that it is prepared and even eager to strike Iran. But off the record, sources are saying that it is anything but that,” Eyal told Fox News Digital. “The reason is clear: Any Israeli strike in Iran will lead to Iranian ballistic missile attacks against Israel.”
US CLAWS BACK KEY CONCESSION TO IRAN AFTER FRESH ATTACKS ON COMMERCIAL SHIPS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, from left, US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. Trump insisted Egypt and Jordan will take in Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, dismissing the countries’ refusal to accept people from the war-shattered territory. Photographer: Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Getty Images)
Eyal said the domestic political consequences could make Netanyahu reluctant to begin another round of fighting, particularly as Israel approaches another election.
“If these strikes are meant to provide meaningful, strategic change, it is something the prime minister can sell to the public,” Eyal said. “But if the intention is only to use Israel as leverage, why should Israelis again experience a couple of weeks or more of sitting in safe rooms and losing their summer vacations, children’s day camps and summer camps? That could play out badly for the prime minister politically.”
“The truth is that Israel was not really enthusiastic about another strike,” he added. “That doesn’t mean it is not going to happen. If President Trump demands that Netanyahu join, it is very hard to see the Israelis saying no. But right now, I don’t see any passion for it.”
The diplomatic outreach continued even as Trump declared that the ceasefire with Iran was over.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’ We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
A source with knowledge of the situation told Fox News that Qatari negotiators have traveled to Iran, in coordination with the United States, to meet with Iranian officials in an effort to de-escalate the situation and create the conditions for negotiations to resume.
On Thursday, Netanyahu and Trump spoke by phone, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office, which said the two agreed to continue coordinating across several regional fronts. Trump briefed Netanyahu on American operations in the Gulf, the statement said.
NETANYAHU REJECTS REPORTS OF A RIFT WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAYS THE TWO REMAIN ALIGNED ON IRAN
A satellite image shows damage at the control tower in the port of Chabahar, Iran, July 9, 2026, after the U.S. military said July 8, 2026, it launched fresh strikes on Iran to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping. ( 2026 PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via Reuters)
The military warnings came as the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Israel had provided the United States with intelligence about what is described as a fresh Iranian plot to assassinate Trump.
The developments follow renewed attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, where U.S. naval officials said the maritime threat remained “severe.” U.S. Naval Forces Central Command reminded commercial vessels Friday that an expanded southern route through the strait remained open and that no controlling authority could require ships to pay a fee for passage.
A U.S. official told Fox News on background that Iran’s attacks against commercial vessels were “acts of terrorism” and constituted failed performance under the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran.
“The United States is still committed to finding a resolution, and technical talks continue,” the official said. “Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.”
Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former senior Israeli military intelligence officer who now heads the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said Israel had never regarded the memorandum as an adequate guarantee.
“From Israel’s perspective, the MOU was never a good deal,” Kuperwasser told Fox News Digital, speaking of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran.
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CENTCOM shared footage of strikes against airplanes amid Iran war (U.S. Central Command on X)
“Israel should be on high alert, ready to face an Iranian attack and prepared to strike back if necessary,” he added.
For now, Israel’s leaders appear to be leaving Iran — and Washington — with little doubt that they are prepared to act. Whether the United States allows Israel to join the renewed campaign, however, could determine whether the latest confrontation remains limited or develops into another full-scale regional war.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Published on •Updated
Belgium’s three regions announced on Friday that they would introduce a road tax next year that foreign drivers transiting the country would also have to pay.
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The country does not currently charge drivers to use its highways and the issue of introducing some form of payment has been debated for years.
“Everyone who uses our roads must contribute fairly to their maintenance,” said the transport minister for the southern Wallonia region, François Desquesnes.
Starting on 1 May 2027 drivers will need to register their vehicle and pay the road tax, with day passes available for drivers driving across the country.
An annual pass for a zero-emission car will cost €90 and up to €125 for higher polluting vehicles.
Road cameras that catch cars that haven’t paid for a pass will incur a fine of €70.
In Belgium, the individual regions are responsible for maintaining roads and motorways.
Currently, drivers can use almost all highways toll-free but the possibility of an introducing a charge has been under discussion for several years.
The revenue would be used for the operation and maintenance of the road network.
The proposed toll still needs final approval from the regions and European authorities.
According to the chairman of the liberal-conservative MR party, the government intends to offset the new toll by lowering other taxes for Belgians.
Additional sources • AFP
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