From the Wall Street Journal:
"The Trump administration is moving to curb the sale of imported counterfeit goods over the internet, warning electronic commerce platforms and warehouse operators of greater scrutiny and penalties if they don’t help ferret out fakes … The Trump administration is seeking to pressure e-commerce giants including Amazon.com Inc., which increasingly hosts lucrative third-party sales on its platform, as well as financial firms, logistics services and other companies that are positioned to help stem the rising tide of counterfeits and pirated goods."
The story says that "the Department of Homeland Security is set to release a report Friday outlining its immediate actions and longer-term goals for enlisting e-commerce players to combat counterfeit products that officials say undermine U.S. technology and manufacturing, harm bricks-and-mortar retailers and endanger consumers." This report will lay out the government's plans to “seek all available statutory authorities to pursue civil fines and other penalties against these entities," and will "explicitly permit the government to seek injunctive relief against third-party marketplaces and other intermediaries dealing in counterfeit merchandise.”
"The Trump administration is moving to curb the sale of imported counterfeit goods over the internet, warning electronic commerce platforms and warehouse operators of greater scrutiny and penalties if they don’t help ferret out fakes … The Trump administration is seeking to pressure e-commerce giants including Amazon.com Inc., which increasingly hosts lucrative third-party sales on its platform, as well as financial firms, logistics services and other companies that are positioned to help stem the rising tide of counterfeits and pirated goods."
The story says that "the Department of Homeland Security is set to release a report Friday outlining its immediate actions and longer-term goals for enlisting e-commerce players to combat counterfeit products that officials say undermine U.S. technology and manufacturing, harm bricks-and-mortar retailers and endanger consumers." This report will lay out the government's plans to “seek all available statutory authorities to pursue civil fines and other penalties against these entities," and will "explicitly permit the government to seek injunctive relief against third-party marketplaces and other intermediaries dealing in counterfeit merchandise.”
- KC's View:
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The argument here long has been that retailers would be better off being highly vigilant on the counterfeit issue, being better about preventing them and being as transparent as possible about product provenance. And, I've suggested that if they didn't do this, they would have only themselves to blame if the government stepped in and imposed new rules, regulations - and penalties.
Which sort of seems like where we are at the moment.
Some will argue that this is a Trump administration initiative aimed directly at Amazon and Jeff Bezos, but that may not matter. When you know you have an enemy, you don't hand them a weapon and tell them what your weaknesses are.
