Just like dodgy characters at car boot sales and high street markets there are always a few individuals who try to sell counterfeit or illegal goods without the brand owner’s permission.
With online markets the challenge is enormous-eBay has 181 million users worldwide and on any given day there are 60 million items for sale. How do you know for sure that online counterfeit products are not being sold or that your branded goods are not being sold on illegally by a third party reseller in breach of its obligation to you?
We have seen online jewellery “businesses” doing this and one individual trying to sell waste service sacks that carried with them an inherent understanding that the service element was included in the sale of the sack-even though the waste provider never allowed such pre-paid services to be resold.
Businesses are becoming more aware of these risks however and are sensibly signing up to an auction watch service whereby they are notified of potential infringements.
