In June 2020, Incopro contributed to the European Commission Consultation on the Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist. This is further to a previous submission that Incopro provided in 2018.

Making the Internet Better for Businesses and their Consumers

The explosion in e-commerce via online marketplaces has revolutionized the way consumers engage with the brands they love – overwhelmingly for the good. However (as seen acutely with the global Covid-19 pandemic), it has also given bad actors immense scope to undermine brands and consumer trust through counterfeiting – which impacts fiscal policy as well as supporting global terrorism, trafficking and organized crime.

At Incopro, we believe that internet platforms and marketplaces can and should do more to protect brands and consumers from the array of harms they face on the Internet. Our stated purpose encapsulates this – we are committed to Making the Internet Better for Businesses and their Consumers. This means, among other things, lobbying national and international Governments, trade authorities and regulatory bodies to ensure that the rights of brands and the rights and interests of their consumers are protected to the fullest extent. 

Holding Platforms to Account

In recent months, Incopro has worked with our legal partners to exert pressure on search engines – and Google in particular – to be more accountable to brands through the publication of an evidence-based whitepaper and subsequent lobbying. We are pleased to note that Google has made some progress by allowing brands to request that Google de-list individual infringing URLs – but we also remain clear that it has not done enough.

The explosion in e-commerce via online marketplaces has revolutionized the way consumers engage with the brands they love – overwhelmingly for the good. However (as seen acutely with the global Covid-19 pandemic), it has also given bad actors immense scope to undermine brands and consumer trust through counterfeiting – which impacts fiscal policy as well as supporting global terrorism, trafficking and organized crime.

2020 European Commission Consultation on the Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist

In June 2020, Incopro contributed to a request by the European Commission to participate in their Consultation on the Counterfeit and Piracy Watchlist. This is further to a submission that Incopro provided in 2018. The Consultation looked (broadly) at Internet platforms located outside of the European Union, their role in facilitating infringement of intellectual property rights and related consumer harm.

The Consultation is aimed at procuring stakeholder input and seeks to refresh the original watchlist (published in December 2018) with a focus on on-line marketplaces located outside of the European Union reported to engage in or facilitate substantial infringement of intellectual property rights (in particular those infringements concerning piracy and counterfeiting). 

The focus of the Incopro submission was on online marketplaces considered to be ‘non-compliant’, being ones which typically feature:

High Risk Platforms

Incopro undertook analysis in order to understand which marketplace platforms located outside of the European Union are the most problematic for the 700+ global brands we work with across a broad range of sectors including luxury and fashion, technology, FMCG, pharmaceuticals and healthcare.  The analysis involved looking at the behaviors and characteristics of platforms considered by these brands to be high risk. These were:

• volume of infringing listings;
• enforcement requirements;
• responsiveness to notice sending;
• compliance; and
• sanctions applied to repeat infringers

amongst others.  The results are summarized below. Shading indicates that the platform was already brought to the Commission’s attention through Incopro’s original submission in 2018 and so continues to be deserving of scrutiny by the Commission. 

Incopro supports enhanced regulation of online marketplaces through meaningful, legislative reform to address what is a matter of substantial public interest.  The Commission is expected to publish the results of the Consultation towards the end of 2020; we look forward to sharing our analysis of those results in due course.

About Incopro

We’re changing the face of Brand Protection by uniting businesses against a common enemy. Together, we can turn our collective intelligence and combined reach into real outcomes. Learn about our story and our mission to make the internet better for business and consumers.