e-Commerce Websites Ideal For Counterfeit Product Sales
Los Angeles, CA, June 18, 2014 - The counterfeit product industry is a $1 trillion global criminal enterprise that destroys jobs, ruins consumer confidence and damages legitimate manufacturer’s reputations. Counterfeit products account for about 10% of global trade, yet remain relatively unnoticed by US consumers who lose billions each year to these deceptive products, 90% of which originate in China.
e-Commerce websites including eBay® and Amazon® have become an ideal and successful platform for counterfeiters and dishonest sellers to distribute counterfeit products in the US and globally. These websites remain relatively untouched for secondary liability in the distribution of counterfeit goods. While the UK and France have taken aggressive actions against eBay, the US Second Circuit Court held that beyond removing items reported to it, websites do not have an “affirmative duty” to take precautions against the sale of counterfeit items on their site. So, buyers beware.
Perceived immunity and lax enforcement may have made the US an attractive host for China’s website giant, Alibaba®, to field a $15 billion IPO to investors and also introduce its new US e-commerce website, 11main.com. China’s Alibaba is no stranger to counterfeit goods, having been removed in 2013 from the US Government’s “Notorious Markets” list which identifies select online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in, and facilitate substantial piracy and counterfeiting. Alibaba touted its removal of approximately 20% of its website listings as suspected infringing listings, but didn’t identify just how many products were simply relisted for sale.
Well-known US brands still have hundreds to thousands of counterfeit copies of their authentic goods offered online, and manufactures are vocal that not enough is being done to stop counterfeiting and brand damage.
The legal criteria seems simple “For contributory trademark infringement liability to lie, a service provider must have more than a general knowledge or reason to know that its service is being used to sell counterfeit goods. Some contemporary knowledge of which particular listings are infringing or will infringe in the future is necessary” says the court. Yet, it takes no sleuthing to find fake products on any of the e-commerce giant’s sites. Even products that simply never existed in a manufacturer’s product line, yet still carry the manufacturer’s brand, are common on the websites.
Over 90% of consumers look to e-commerce websites for good deals on nationally branded products, and e-commerce websites will reap billions from revenue from consumers who place their confidence in these websites. Consumers may unknowingly purchase hazardous or deadly products that are very deceptive in appearance and it's the consumer who ultimately gets hurt.
Website: www.TheCounterfeitReport.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Counterfeit-Report/131568053660579
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