On 5 November 2013, the UK's Intellectual Property Office issued a ruling that Gucci has lost the rights to its GG trademark in the UK "to a version of the GG logo in four categories, which encompassed garments such as bracelets, shoulder bags, scarves and coats".[41] German clothing firm Gerry Weber applied to revoke "the trademark on account of its 'nonuse' in the periods from 2003 through 2008 and 2007 through 2012".[41] However, "according to Gucci, the ruling does not affect the use of its GG logo in the region" because "Gucci is the owner of several other valid registrations for this mark, including a Community Trade Mark (covering the European Union) for its iconic GG logo and those rights are directly enforceable in the U.K."[41] On 6 November 2013, Gucci won a trademark infringement and unfair competition activities lawsuit against Guess in Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court of the People's Republic of China.[39] Gucci claimed that Guess was " imitating its collections and image."[39] In December 2014, a Gucci subcontractor in Italy told Investigative Journalists that Gucci was aware it irregularly employed Chinese workers who worked as long as 14 hours a day.[42]

Gucci produced controversial advertisements that many believe sexualizes and objectifies women. Erving Goffman conducted research on advertisements and how they are consistently reinforcing common stereotypes of women.[43] He outlined different characteristics commonly found in media that tend to favor men over women. These stereotypes, which can all be found in Gucci’s advertisements, include relative size, ritualization of subordination, feminine touch, and function ranking.[44]

Almost all of Gucci’s advertisements include a woman who is being dismembered to show off a certain part of her body, positioned in a way, that some would consider, sexualizes her body, or made much smaller in size to appear submissive to the counterpart (usually a male) in the ad. Jean Kilbourne describes how often advertisements are working to undermine women and place women in positions of passivity.[44] Many people find these advertisements offensive and in turn many organizations have publicly criticized Gucci. The Fashion Law, a fashion legal and business website, argues that the infamous line "sex sells" is proven through Gucci’s continual use of scandalous advertisements and correlating sales.[45]

The Italian luxury brand still continues to publish controversial ads. Gucci used a short film and images with reference to a cult film about drug addiction. This advertisement received a lot of backlash primarily because one of their young models was unhealthily thin according to the Advertising Standards Authority.[47] This advertisement sounded shocking to many, but to the advertisement industry it was regarded as a prime example of what companies are supposed to do.[48] William O'Barr argues that advertisements' main priority is to break through and draw the consumer's attention, regardless of what is deemed appropriate in society's eyes.[49]

In February 2019, Gucci advertised a black turtleneck sweater, which included a partial balaclava with red lips, which many twitter users criticized as resembling blackface. The brand quickly addressed the controversy by issuing an apology statement and asserting that the piece was "immediately removed" from its online and physical stores.[50][51] Rapper and actor 50 Cent posted a video on Instagram of himself burning a Gucci t-shirt in response to this incident, captioning the video "I gotta get rid of all the Gucci I have at home. I'm not supporting their brand anymore."