Walmart Holiday Shoppers May Receive Counterfeit and Fraudulent Products

Walmart.com not safe for holiday shoppers.

December 11, 2019, Los Angeles, CA – Holiday shoppers expect Walmart to provide authentic and safe products when they shop on Walmart's website -- but that confidence is misplaced. Walmart's push to capture a portion of the exploding e-commerce marketplace exposes a seedy and dishonest practice -- the sale of counterfeit, fraudulent, and replica products.

Walmart is both a direct retailer of counterfeits, and has opened its website, Walmart.com, to global third-party sellers who can list just about anything they want, including counterfeit, fake and replica products.

Counterfeit items appear right alongside authentic products, creating the illusion they are from Walmart, or have Walmart's endorsement. Deceived consumers spend good money for bad products, while Walmart takes a transaction fee for each item sold.

For example, the counterfeit product below has Walmart's "Trusted Seller" endorsement -- but it's a fake. A 64GB microSDHC card does not exist in any legitimate product line or the microSDHC® licensing standard. Counterfeit memory cards may install malware on the device used.

An undercover investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") of counterfeit consumer goods on e-commerce websites, including Walmart (WMT), found that about 50% of the items the GAO purchased were counterfeit.

The Counterfeit Report, an award-winning consumer advocate and industry watchdog, found over 7,400 counterfeit and fraudulent items on Walmart's website and removed 2,000 on behalf of the infringed brand-owners. While some listings were removed, others remained for months or were relisted. Consumers probably wouldn't suspect the counterfeit items below found or purchased on Walmart.com.

(Photo: The Counterfeit Report ®)

• Vans, the popular footwear and apparel company, does not make or license the use of the Vans® trademark on iPhone 6, 7 or 8 phone cases. The fake item shown was offered by third-party sellers on Walmart's website.
• Authentic Fullips® beauty products are made from safe food-grade plastic and FDA approved colorant. Counterfeits have been found with lead and arsenic. A three-pack version was never manufactured by Fullips.
• In simple terms, there is no authentic 64GB microSDHC® computer memory product in the SDHC standard, or any licensed manufacturer's authentic product line. The fake microSDHC and SDHC cards shown here were purchased from both Walmart as a direct retailer and third-party sellers on Walmart. The microSD® and SDHC® trademarks are owned by SD-3C, LLC, who licenses its registered trademarks to authentic, conforming SD products.
• CREE® manufactures lighting products and LED's, but CREE does not make flashlights. The items shown are fake, they do not exist in the CREE product line, but are offered on Walmart.com.
• Untested and non-FDA approved OTC drugs are a hazard to unsuspecting consumers. It is unknown what ingredients are in this Deep Numb product bearing the unauthorized Dr. Numb® registered trademark. Authentic Dr. Numb® 5% Lidocaine Cream is a topical anesthetic. Counterfeit Dr. Numb tested in the packaging shown here, and also offered on Walmart.com, did not contain Lidocaine, as indicated, but Tetracaine, an anesthetic known to cause fatal defects in animal testing, and can result in "full blown anaphylactic shock" says surgeon and anesthesiologist, Dr. Tom Brock.
• Composite Resources, Combat Application Tourniquet® (C-A-T®), has been supplied to the U.S. Military, police, first responders and the public worldwide for the past decade. Counterfeit and replica versions of the C-A-T tourniquet have catastrophically failed during actual life-saving applications. The fakes and replicas are listed on Walmart.
• This counterfeit Duracell® battery with its easily peeled off label was purchased from a Walmart third-party seller. Would you trust a fake for smoke detectors, baby monitors or first responder's equipment?
• All the SD® and microSD® memory cards shown here from Walmart's website are fake. None of the capacities in the formats shown exist in the SD standard or in any legitimate manufacturer's authentic product line. Consumers risk losing data and images using counterfeit memory products.

Everyone knows selling counterfeits is illegal, yet through huge legal loopholes, and virtually immune to prosecution, IP laws and safety standards, Walmart continues to enable and facilitate criminal activity with impunity. Walmart profits from fraudulent sales which impact consumer safety, jobs, and public trust. The consequence is destroyed U.S companies and retailers, lost U.S. jobs, and duped consumers. The value of counterfeit and pirated goods is forecast to grow to $2.8 trillion and cost 5.4 million net job losses by 2022 states a 2017 International Chamber of Commerce Report.

View more Walmart fakes here.