Ferrari: The Company That Sues Its Customers

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We’ve all heard about disgruntled customers who sue businesses for various reasons such as poor-quality products, false advertisements, or harmful products. Still, it’s quite rare to hear that a company sued its customer. Just hearing this is flabbergasting and I’m sure you are struggling to understand what reasons any company would have for suing their customers. Surprisingly, Ferrari has had reasons and successfully sued some of their customers and even repossessed cars from some of the customers.

While this post focuses on Ferrari suing its customers, it’s also about the company culture of Ferrari, which is one of the most unique. But before we go further, we need to take a brief look back at the history of Ferrari and see if the company’s history has any impact on its current company culture.

The History of Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari was founded on November 16, 1929, by Enzo Ferrari and the company broke off from Alpha Romeo by 1938 to start racing in its name. Enzo Ferrari has long been known as a cold and stubborn man which is true because of one of his infamous interactions which led to the creation of Ferrari’s competition, Lamborghini.

"You are a tractor driver, you are a farmer. You shouldn't complain about driving my cars because they're the best cars in the world. – Enzo Ferrari"

He said this because Ferrucio Lamborghini had recently purchased a Ferrari and was not happy with the clutches of his car and after repeated trips to Maranello to have them replaced, he demanded to see Enzo Ferrari. When he saw Enzo, he said to him,

"Ferrari, your cars are rubbish!" - Ferrucio Lamborghini

That led to Ferrari responding with the first quote above. Ferrari’s pride led to the creation of his competition, but it seems like although Enzo Ferrari died in 1988, his pride remained with his company.

The Company of Ferrari

One of the unusual rules Ferrari has is that its employees are not allowed to buy brand-new Ferraris. Another rule Ferrari has is that you cannot mess with the logos, and they strongly believe that when a new Ferrari comes out of the factory it is already "perfect" so there is no need for modifications or customizations. Another rule that Ferrari has is that they do not make pink cars. One last rule the company has is that its customers must accept the company’s right to buy back their car from its owner.

Some of these rules might be seen as a stretch for a car company and some might not. It all depends on your perspective. However there have been instances when Ferrari sued its customers for breaking their rules and as outrageous as some of the company’s rules are, they surprisingly won some of their lawsuits.

Ferrari's Legal Battles with Customers

1. Deadmau5: Famous DJ Deadmau5 pronounced "Dead Mouse" in 2014 had a Ferrari 458 Italia that he wanted to customise. So, he had the car theme wrapped with the internet meme Nyan Cat and named the car "Purrari." The car became a hot topic, and it even won an award at a supercar rally called the "Gumball 3000" which has taken place every year since 1999.
   Ferrari didn’t seem to have a problem with the meme theming but the replacement of their badges with "Purrari" ones. Ferrari’s team filed a cease and desist, and as a result, Deadmau5 was forced to remove all his customisation. He later sold the car and replaced it with a similarly customised Lamborghini Huracan which he dubbed the "Purracan."
2. Philip Plein: German fashion designer’s case is quite an unusual one because he was sued for a simple post which could have been easily forgiven but Ferrari was not in the forgiving mood. One of the reasons he got into trouble is that he posted a picture of a pair of sneakers on his Ferrari 812 Superfast. Ferrari took to court claiming that Plein’s social media posts harm the brand of Ferrari.
   The main argument was that Plein posts images of his products with Ferraris, and women dressed questionably would be posing in the pictures. Ferrari’s legal team claimed that their brand was being paired with sexualisation and asked him to remove the pictures which he refused.
   He later paid about €325,000 in legal fees and damages since he lost the case.
3. Ferrari Wiring: Well, this is not just a person but rather a website that almost had a short lifespan due to being sued by Ferrari. Ferrariwiring.com was a website that sold wiring diagrams for old Ferrari models because they were rare and hard to find. Ferrari was not happy with this business and sued it for intellectual property violations. The owner had made it known that his website was not affiliated with Ferrari but that didn’t stop them from suing.
   The outcome of the lawsuit is unknown as the website still exists.

Conclusion

Ferrari is one interesting company but despite their strict rules, they are still a prominent supercar brand with a large fan base. After reading this would you want to buy a Ferrari? There are a few more cases I left out in this article and there are more interesting facts about the company that might appear in future articles. Thanks for reading.