A report from the
The report concludes that only 8 of the 50 marketplaces studied had "coherent anti-counterfeiting strategies". Of the other 42 marketplaces studied and deemed not to have a sufficient strategy in place, WIPO considers that some of these are "indifferent to the counterfeit problem" and in some cases, written policies are reportedly a "window-dressing" whilst actual actions to tackle counterfeits fall short. Furthermore, in respect of social media marketplaces, WIPO concludes that anti counterfeiting strategies are "well short of that required to serve the sector's business model".
The overall message of the research is that "the online marketplace industry is struggling to contain the counterfeit problem".
It is no secret that the rise in popularity of e-commerce (which was in part escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic) and the explosion of social media marketplace platforms over the last few years has allowed counterfeiters to take advantage of the relative anonymity of the Internet and to increase their reach to new consumers all over the world. However, WIPO's report suggests that the "online market industry is failing to tackle the counterfeit problem through self-regulation and the implementation of coherent ethical programs" and those who are making strides in this area were deemed to be in the minority of marketplaces studied.
WIPO's recommendation is that the industry considers a "generic, risk-based framework" to tackle counterfeiting online, similar to the frameworks under the
As a brand protection practitioner, I would definitely like to see something closer to standardisation (noting the practical difficulties of achieving this) and transparency in how different marketplaces tackle counterfeits. In my opinion, there are some really strong examples of anti-counterfeiting processes and strategies in the online space (
If you are interested, I would recommend reading the full report from WIPO. There are some really interesting statistics and commentary, as well as a full explanation of their research methodology.
Significant issues within the industry include lack of problem recognition, inadequate policies and rules, policies and rules that are difficult to understand and navigate, weak enforcement of those rules, organizational silos, inadequate monitoring, lack of engagement with rights holders, and obstacles to law enforcement. Weak verification processes are a fundamental problem because illicit merchants cannot be controlled if the platforms do not know who they are, and the practice of adopted verification spreads the infection of illicit merchants. High evidence thresholds, which favor illicit merchants, are obstacles to investigations by rights holders and law enforcement.
www.wipo.int/...
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