Tampa, FL (September 27, 2023)—Over the last decade, there’s been a slow but steady proliferation of counterfeit pro-audio gear infiltrating the industry, but manufacturers continue to work with law enforcement and the courts to combat the quiet rise in fake equipment. Today, L-Acoustics announced that Tampa-based rental company Se7ven Sounds Music, Inc., has been ordered by the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division to pay $5 million in damages to the pro-audio manufacturer, following an investigation and raid of the live sound provider that resulted in the seizure of 136 counterfeit L-Acoustics products.
The final judgment found that the “defendants infringed the L-Acoustics Trademarks by intentionally and willfully engaging in the unauthorized manufacturing, importation, offering for sale and/or rental, and sale and/or rental of goods in interstate commerce imitating the design of L-Acoustics products and bearing counterfeit L-Acoustics Trademarks.” The judgment also gave L-Acoustics the right to destroy the confiscated fake products.
Counterfeit gear is a growing problem for the pro-audio industry, which has seen a rise in the production of phony equipment, ranging from sham Shure microphones to pirate Prism Sound interfaces to bogus L-Acoustics loudspeakers that were seized and destroyed in China last year (see video).
The largest Meth bust in Australian history involved fraudulent audio gear, too—in 2019, the Australian Border Force seized a cargo shipment of counterfeit Nexo loudspeakers used to smuggle nearly 1.8 U.S. tons of methylamphetamine and an additional 82 lbs. of heroin into Australia. The shipment was worth an estimated $835 million U.S.
Counterfeit goods are nothing new, but while a bogus Rolex watch just stops telling time, a counterfeit loudspeaker can be a genuine safety hazard. Hastily made from makeshift parts with no need to meet safety standards, shoddy fake speakers can put the public, crews and even other legitimate gear at risk.
The original Se7ven Sounds Music investigation was conducted late last year, and resulted in both the seizure of fake L-Acoustics products and, ultimately, the filed complaint for “trademark counterfeiting and infringement, false designation of source origin, unfair competition, and deceptive acts or practices under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, common law trademark infringement, and common law unfair competition.”
