UGG arms customers against fakes as Black Friday approaches

As the holiday season starts to gather momentum, UGG has launched social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter aimed at helping consumers avoid counterfeits.

The campaign includes a Facebook page that features videos and photos that help consumers identify counterfeit product and alert them to popular scams. In addition, the page will answer questions from customers and offer support with identifying sites as counterfeit or genuine.

UGG's move comes ahead of Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving in the US that has become established in many countries around the world as the start of the Christmas shopping season.

The footwear and clothing company says it continues to battle counterfeits in the marketplace, noting it has also taken legal action against 60,000 websites selling counterfeit versions of its products and removed over 300,000 counterfeit listings on Alibaba's consumer marketplace Taobao.

Between 2007-2015 law enforcement has globally seized over 2.5 million counterfeit UGG brand products, it adds.

"Many consumers may not know that buying counterfeit products has a significant impact on the global economy, eliminating tens of thousands of jobs with legitimate businesses and costing the economy an estimated $600bn of revenue a year," says UGG in a statement.

"Worse yet, they are not accountable to human rights and environmental regulations nor do they adhere to child labour laws, anti-sweatshop laws, or restricted substances laws."