A few months ago, I excitedly awaited the arrival of a mini cassette bag from Bottega Veneta that I was able to get for ~$700 during a sale at a major online retailer. However, all my expectations were crushed when I opened the suspiciously light package to discover the patented box was…completely empty. I couldn’t believe I had just spent $700 to receive absolutely nothing.

After a lot of back and forth, a representative from the retailer told me they had conducted an investigation and decided to refund me.

Fake it till you make it? One TikTok shopper reportedly received a dupe of a luxury item they ordered on Saks Fifth Avenue. Another got, in one now-infamous case, a can of tuna when the customer ordered a $275 Dolce & Gabbana ashtray. At the time of posting those videos, the customers alleged they had contacted Saks but were not refunded. (The customer who received the tuna did ultimately get the ashtray and a $100 gift card.)

So what might be going on?

Keep reading here.—JS

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The French word for impasse is—you’ll never guess—impasse, the explanation being that the word originated in France. This etymological detour comes courtesy of French supermarket chain Carrefour and the American food and beverage conglomerate, PepsiCo, which recently ended a three-month impasse/impasse over pricing that resulted in all PepsiCo products—including its cola as well as the Doritos, Cheetos, and Lay’s brands—disappearing from the stores’ shelves.

When Carrefour gave the products la botte in January, it explained (in French) with shelf signage that read, “We are no longer selling this brand due to unacceptable price increases.”

But at the time, PepsiCo argued that it wasn’t Carrefour that rejected it, but the other way around.

“Regrettably, Carrefour has mischaracterized the chain of events,” an unnamed PepsiCo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal at the time. “Given the lack of agreement on a new contract, we stopped supplying to Carrefour at the end of the year, something they were aware could happen.”

But that’s all resolved now, and like Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke reuniting for another sequel, the France-US romance has been rekindled.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Hey there—welcome back to our weekly dispatch on what you need to know in fashion. This week, one retailer won big in a trademark infringement lawsuit, and a luxury brand continues to grow its revenue, even as luxury overall experiences a spending lull.

Lacoste wins trademark lawsuit

Lacoste received $2 million as compensation in a trademark infringement lawsuit in China. The dispute was over Lacoste’s trademark crocodile, which looks to the right, and a Chinese brand’s suspiciously similar crocodile looking to the left. The ruling determined that the latter, Cartelo, had caused confusion in the market, as Lacoste’s crocodile logo was well established in the region, and hence constituted infringement.

Why this matters: Over the past couple of years, some fashion brands have been fervently defending their designs against potential copyright or trademark infringement. In 2023, French luxury house Hermès won a yearlong copyright battle against Mason Rothschild, who created an Hermès-inspired range of NFTs called MetaBirkins that resembled the Birkin bag and sold for thousands of dollars.

Keep reading here.—JS

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