Seized Designer Clothes To Be Destroyed

Designer clothing seized from a small Irish store is to be destroyed after the retailer was found to be selling it without permission.

On 13 June last year, more than 800 items of Abercrombie & Fitch clothing, estimated to be worth €32,000, were seized at the McGazz shop on Cornmarket Row, Limerick, after a court order was granted to designer label.

In October A&F successfully sued McGazz Ltd for breaches of the 1996 Trademark Act.

The Ohio-based company, which opened its first Irish flagship store in Dublin last November, only allows the sale of its clothes through stores it owns and operates.

McGazz opened in Limerick in July 2011 and Conor Twomey who runs the store with his brother John, bought the clothing at Abercrombie & Fitch outlet stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He posted the goods to Limerick and paid excise duty and tax before selling them cheaper than the US clothing company’s Irish prices.

“These goods are absolutely 100 per cent genuine and legal,” he told the court, adding he has never bought or sold counterfeit goods at the store.

(H/GK)