Federal Judge Seems Skeptical About Birkin Bag Antitrust Suit
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Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.
Hermes can run its business any way it wants. If it chooses to make five Birkin bags a year and charge a million to them, it can do that. The fact that a lot of your clients may not be able to get a Birkin bag is not a Hermes antitrust problem.
If Hermes is going to make you pay a fortune for their bag, they are leaving the ground open for every competitor to say, ‘Come on in and get our beautiful bag and you don’t have to buy $3,000 or $30,000 worth of belts.’
— Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California, in comments given last month concerning consumers’ antitrust claims lodged against luxury fashion house Hermes. Donato, a veteran of three Biglaw firms where he practiced antitrust law, is skeptical about those claims. In their lawsuit, plaintiffs allege that Hermes will only give those with “sufficient purchase history” the chance to buy a Birkin bag, claiming that this purchase tying scenario is a violation of antitrust law. The consumer plaintiffs recently revised their complaint for the third time by adding false advertising and fraud claims in an attempt to keep the suit alive.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
