Brand owners face obstacles in tracking online sellers of counterfeit goods
As the sale of counterfeit brand name items on the Internet grows, more companies are taking to the web to search out fakes, but their task is not an easy one, says Glen G. Gieschen, managing director of Gieschen Consultancy. Gieschen tracks brands counterfeiting and piracy.
During the first quarter, authorities worldwide seized about $1.1 billion in counterfeit and pirated goods, Gieschen says. He does not break out how many fakes are sold over the Internet but says there’s tremendous growth in the amount of counterfeit and pirated goods available online.
As brand name owners increasingly turn their attention to the web, they’re finding counterfeit sales popping up in a number of venues, Gieschen says. That makes it difficult for the companies to shut the illicit sellers down.
“Auction (sites) are a huge challenge for brand owners and for consumers trying to verify the authenticity of the goods,” he says. “But equally, there’s a tremendous amount of Internet retailers out there that are peddling counterfeit goods—some that don’t realize those goods are counterfeit and others that know they’re counterfeit.”
Counterfeit brands also are being sold via spam that links to counterfeiters’ sites, Gieschen sites. “They’ll set the sites up in a matter of minutes, and then they’ll take them down and move them within 24 or 48 hours,” he says. “That’s how difficult the Internet is to monitor for brand owners.”
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