{"id":4620,"date":"2025-03-20T16:51:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solidnames.fr\/confusing-website\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T16:51:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:51:56","slug":"confusing-website","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/solidnames.fr\/en\/confusing-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Confusing website"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cybersquatters operate websites using brand names in their Internet addresses. These actions can be qualified as unfair competition<\/strong> when there is a risk of confusion with the competitor’s trademark<\/strong>. The use of a cybersquatted domain name may be considered parasitic competition<\/strong> when it seeks to misappropriate a competitor’s reputation for its own benefit. <\/h4>\n

Website copy<\/strong> <\/h2>\n

In the shipping sector, two of the leading companies, CMA CGM and MSC, have had their websites copied by malicious third parties. The domain name cma-logestics.com<\/a> was a faithful reproduction of the design and content of the<\/strong> CMA CGM website<\/strong>. The “About Us” section featured a fictitious company “CMA Shipping and Logistics Limited” claiming to offer freight, customs clearance and related services. The Copyright presented a copyright from 2000 to 2016 while the domain name was registered in April 2016.
The “Mediterranean Shipping Company” (MSC) experienced a similar case by recovering in December 2016 the domain names msc-cargo.com, msc-delivery.com, msc-transport.com<\/a> copying the real site of container ship owner MSC to offer competing services. The company fell victim to a similar case for msc-chile.net<\/a>, which it recovered in April 2018 via a UDRP procedure. <\/p>\n

The website googleghana.com<\/a> took over the Google search engine logo, used its technology and marketed competing online advertising services – a copy that the brand didn’t appreciate. <\/p>\n

In 2018, with the help of the Novagraaf<\/a> law firm, the French magazine Top Sant\u00e9 recovered the topsante.org<\/a> website operated by a Tunisian owner, whose general terms and conditions had clearly been taken over in their structure by the cybersquatter.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Parasitic competition<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A surveillance and guarding company in Sa\u00f4ne-et-Loire (France) chooses securitassig.fr<\/a> as its website address. This domain name was taken over by Securitas, a major player in the private security sector, in July 2017. The disputed website offers guarding and private personal security services, proving that the domain name was registered with the aim of taking advantage of Securitas’ reputation by creating a risk of confusion in the mind of the consumer<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

In July 2017, SFR won a Syreli case against the website sfr-desimlock.fr<\/a> offering for sale the “desimlockage” service for SFR mobiles, a service offered by the telephone operator.<\/p>\n

In June 2017, French bedding brand DODO obtained the transfer of the disputed domain name dodo-soie.com<\/a> offering competing silk products from China.<\/p>\n

In May 2017, Amazon recovered the amazonwebsolutions.com<\/a> domain name used by an unauthorized third party to offer internet solutions such as hosting, database services, e-commerce…<\/p>\n

In April 2017, a website accessible via the domain name creditmutuelfiable.com<\/a> presented a fake company called “Cr\u00e9dit Mutuel Fiable” offering financial services similar to Cr\u00e9dit Mutuel and potentially misleading Internet users. In December 2016, the bank Cr\u00e9dit Mutuel shut down the website boursedecreditmutuel.com<\/a> offering financial loans under the name of a fictitious limited company called “Bourse Credit Mutuel” taking over its brand. In the same month, the financial institution encountered an identical problem against the website bkcreditmutuel.com<\/a> marketing fake bank loan services to both individuals and professionals. <\/p>\n

False distributors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Websites can be created in an attempt to pass themselves off as a distributor or authorized representative of the cybersquatted brand<\/strong>. In July 2017, the ELITE modeling agency recovered the domain name <\/span><\/span>elitemodelvn.com<\/a> domain name used for a <\/span>website called “Elite Vietnam” which claims to be the leading model management company in Vietnam.<\/span> The website includes information on how to become a model and contains photos of female and male models who are represented by “Elite Vietnam” using a font and stylization similar to that of ELITE.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Electrolux recovered the domain name electrolux.center<\/a> where the brand was omnipresent on this fake Russian website with mentions of distributor in Russia and copyright \u00a9 2014-2015 Electrolux Center. In Brazil, a third party presenting itself as Electrolux in the whois, operates the website el-electrolux.com<\/a>, and offers after-sales services without any authorization. In 2017, Electrolux, which also owns the Zanussi household appliance brand, obtained the transfer of the zanussi19160.com<\/a> domain name. This website offered the brand’s maintenance services without any authorization from the latter. However, the Zanussi brand prohibits all its authorized distributors from registering a domain name using its name. This rule was broken by a repairer in Egypt who used the domain name zanussiofficialagent.com<\/a> to present his services. <\/p>\n

In August 2017, a Russian website attempted to pass itself off as a Dell repair center using the disputed domain name dell-russia.com<\/a>. In neighboring Ukraine, Siemens is the victim of cybersquatting via the domain name siemens-ua.com<\/a> used by an unauthorized reseller of household appliances. <\/p>\n

The domain name surfacethsale.com<\/a> has been used in bad faith by its Thai owner. to impersonate Microsoft and mislead Internet users into believing it was an authorized seller. The website featured Microsoft brands and products, including the Surface Pro 4 tablet. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, a website posing as a Harley Davidson specialist exploited the domain name hd-bastia.com<\/a> creating a false association between the brand and the unauthorized website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Every day,<\/strong> Solidnames’ Brand Alert watches<\/a> alert companies to the registration of a domain name<\/strong> with an identical, identical or similar trademark (typosquatting), which could be used for unfair and parasitic competition<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Solidnames’ SecURL <\/a>service alerts users to changes in web usage, such as uploading a copy of their official website<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n