Hermès customers defend sufficiency of Birkin's US tying claims on appeal
( July 11, 2026, 00:23 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: US Hermès customers asserted that they have sufficiently alleged that the company unlawfully restricts access to its Birkin and Kelly handbags by requiring them to first build a purchase history of ancillary Hermès products. "The question on appeal is whether Appellants plausibly alleged a Section 1 tying claim, not whether they can prove one," the appellants wrote in a reply brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, adding that Hermès’s answering brief "ignores that distinction, reading the allegations against Appellants and demanding evidentiary proof the pleading stage does not require." See reply brief. ...
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