Yes, Leroy Merlin fills his pockets on the backs of artists

• At the end of December, on his Twitter account, the illustrator Quibe warned of the sale of one of his works by the Leroy Merlin site.

  The problem is that he had never given his consent to the company.

• Accustomed to multiple usurpations by platforms around the world, Quibe gave the alert to Leroy Merlin, who withdrew the work from sale.

• Sold on the “Market place” of the brand, the brand does not claim to be responsible.

  However, it is indeed a counterfeit.

Is Leroy Merlin making money on the backs of artists?

This is the alert given on December 24 by the illustrator Quibe.

On his Twitter account, the artist explains that one of his drawings was resold without his consent by the Leroy Merlin site.

This drawing available at Leroy-Merlin is a #counterfeit of my chewal #meclepluscopiédumonde pic.twitter.com/E4Gjq72jdj

— Quibe 🇫🇷 (@quibelog) December 24, 2022

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.

He also explains that he found the same illustration on the Chinese platform Ali express at much lower prices.

In addition to usurping the identity of the artist, the French DIY brand would be practicing what is called "drop shipping", denounces Quibe.

So what really happened?

returns to the case.

FAKE OFF

In his Twitter biography, the artist Quibe calls himself [not without sarcasm] to be the “most copied guy in the world”.

For ten years, the illustrator has worked for various clients, in particular communication agencies, publishers and even architects.

His works have become trendy by the now popular method of "one line" (a single continuous line of drawing) and give him a certain particularity, which by chance, allows him to be recognizable quite quickly.

The flip side is that his works are constantly plagiarized around the world.

Like this day in December 2022 when Quibe receives a message.

“I was at Leroy Merlin's and I saw your drawings”.

The artist is not surprised: this is the third time that this mishap has happened with the famous DIY brand.

If he had wanted to, this contract could have been a great financial windfall for the artist.

Except that no agreement has ever been made with the brand and Quibe is not necessarily interested in selling his works anywhere.

Everything therefore suggests that the sign belonging to the Mulliez family sells the artist's works without his consent.

Asked by

on several occasions, Leroy Merlin did not respond to our requests.

The story repeats itself

Only, this is not the first time that the artist has had his work stolen by Leroy Merlin.

Already in 2019, the artist had been alerted to the sale of his works by the same store.

At that time, Leroy Merlin had pointed the finger at his supplier with whom a discharge had been signed.

The chain with the green triangle rejected all responsibility, but promised the artist to pay him marketing rights.

“We had also requested the removal of the goods, which was done.

But stockpile destruction with evidence to support the destruction, we never had that,” Quibe recalled.

However, a year later, the artist will have proof that the works have never been destroyed.

In a Leroy Merlin store in Aquitaine, rebelote, a visitor to the brand once again finds the drawing of Quibe, the one that should have been destroyed after the first dispute.

“They have not been destroyed and have been returned to inventory.

Then six to eight months later, someone opened these boxes and used them a second time”, regrets the artist.

After yet another request from the artist, they will finally be removed.

So that it does not happen again, Quibe also requests a meeting with the sign.

It will never take place.

Trusted sellers, really?

Let's now return to the year 2022. Accustomed in spite of himself to these misadventures, Quibe directly checks the alert given.

This time it is another work, a horse's head, still drawn in a continuous line.

A few clicks are enough to find it.

No doubt, this sketch of a horse's head is his.

If the work is not in the catalog sold in stores, the painting is available on the “Market place” of the store, a space housed by Leroy Merlin intended for traders.

This is also the defense that the brand uses to respond to the artist: the painting is sold on the Marketplace, so it is not up to them to check.

But Quibe says he's surprised.

“In full, there is marked “Leroy Merlin has selected trusted sellers for you”.

It is a commitment.

In fact, the trusted seller in question is supplied on the Internet and passes on counterfeit products,” wonders the artist.

Since then, the reference is no longer available for sale on the Marketplace, but was still visible until Monday, January 2.

The next day, we could read this message: “The page you are looking for has been replaced”.

A price multiplied by four

But that's not all.

Quibe also notices that his work, used by Leroy Merlin, is also sold by the Chinese platform Ali Express.

On the latter, the price is 23 euros.

On the Leroy Merlin Marketplace, the total is multiplied by four.

The works of Quibe, sold on its site, will rather approach fifty euros.

According to the artist, this could be similar to “drop shipping” that lawyer Elias Bourran of Cabinet Beaubourg lawyers describes as “a three-way relationship between the dropshipper, the customer and the supplier”.

More simply, it is a direct delivery from the warehouse without going through the reseller.

If Quibe wishes to give the alert, it is mainly because the practice has had bad press for a few months.

It is not illegal, but had to constitute a legal framework since its inception because many irregularities had been noticed, notes lawyer Elias Bourran.

“False labels, a policy of barred prices, poor taxation or general conditions of sale not established”, lists the latter. 

One of the practices simplified by drop shipping is also the increase in price of the same product between different platforms.

“But it's not an unfair trade practice or a scam.

If I buy a work of art and I sell it four times more expensive in my gallery, it's trade, ”slices lawyer Elias Bourran.

Illegal reproduction

However, the line remains very fine between selling on a marketplace and drop shipping.

“The difference is that the first is where you buy, the online market.

The second is an activity of connecting a customer and a supplier where a commission is set up”.

If Leroy Merlin does not necessarily fit into a drop shipping activity, it does not respect its legal responsibility as a platform, argues the lawyer.

FAKE NEWS TO CHECK?

GO THROUGH WHATSAPP

For Me Elias Bourran, the usurpation of Quibe's work can well be defined as an infringement, that is to say "the unauthorized reproduction by any party of a work that is protected by copyright ".

According to article L122-4 of the Intellectual Property Code, “any representation or reproduction in whole or in part made without the consent of the author or his successors in title or assigns is unlawful”.

It is both a criminal and civil offense punishable by three years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros.

If it is an organized counterfeit, the penalty can be up to 7 years in prison and a fine of 750,000 euros.

For his part, Quibe does not want to go to war against Leroy Merlin.

“I still have my loyalty card with them,” he quips.

But he says he is exhausted from having to play the policeman to avoid usurpations.

From 2019, with his lawyer, he began to identify the number of complaints for similar facts.

In two years, the number reached 7,000.

“We stopped reporting them.

But I put my hand to cut that there are many more today, maybe 10,000 or even 12,000”.

World

War in Ukraine: Leroy Merlin explains the maintenance of his activity in Russia

Economy

Louboutin: Amazon targeted by European justice for selling counterfeits

• By the Web

• fake-off

• Art

• Scam

• Counterfeit

• Leroy Merlin

• Drawing