Over one million copyright and trademark notices of infringement have been issued by body.
TRAP’s anti-piracy team has revealed it has issued over one million copyright and trademark notices of infringement in its battle against online merchandise piracy, with up to 50 items per report being removed.
The pro-active initiative has resulted in the removal of goods worth an estimated £39 million and the suspension of 27,394 seller accounts.
Counterfeit and bootleg merchandise is produced and consumed in virtually all economies, although South East Asia emerges as the single largest producing region.
TRAP’s dedicated team currently reports 300 infringing listings per hour worldwide, yet online piracy remains a huge threat for the future development of the industry.
In the last four years, the world’s leading marketplaces have been notified more than one million times that they are providing a platform for the sale of trademark and copyright infringing merchandise that contributes nothing to the artist, rights owner or Exchequer.
These complaints represent only a fraction of the infringing products available, commercial merchandise piracy costs the industry more than £375m in lost sales each year.
TRAP is responding to these continued threats with a multi-pronged approach that includes educating sellers on rights, lobbying marketplaces to adopt tighter controls on business seller accounts, partnering with law enforcement agencies and criminal litigation against persistent offenders.
During 2018, TRAP will be increasing pressure on worldwide marketplaces and auction sites to enforce stricter registration criteria for business seller accounts including the introduction of a seller approval process scheme.
This would put an onus on sellers to submit copies of official purchase invoices from legitimate supply chain wholesale sources to the host website prior to being granted selling privileges within the merchandise category.
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