Notorious Markets List Says Social Media Driving Sales
The latest annual Notorious Markets List, which isn't exhaustive, didn't highlight any American-owned platforms, though the Jan. 30 report from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said intellectual property rights holders are concerned "about the proliferation of counterfeit sales facilitated by the confluence of e-commerce platforms and social media."
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Some influencers endorse "dupes," slang for duplicates, or knock-offs. "Right holders state that while certain e-commerce and social commerce (social media sites with integrated e-commerce ecosystems) platforms have taken positive steps to implement anti-counterfeiting policies, many others still lack adequate anti-counterfeiting policies, processes, and tools such as identity verification, effective notice-and-takedown procedures, proactive anti-counterfeiting filters and tools, and strong policies against repeat infringers," the report said.
Some markets on past lists were dropped because they closed, became less popular or enforcement or voluntary action reduced the amount of counterfeits or pirated goods sold there.
"The United States continues to urge trading partners to provide enforcement officials with ex officio authority to seize suspect goods and destroy infringing goods in-country as part of their criminal procedures and at the border during import, export, or in-transit movement," the report said.
It noted that counterfeits are more often coming in small packages rather than in ocean-going containers.