Though online marketplaces like Amazon may have helped make shopping easier, it can often be difficult to tell if what you are getting is the real thing or not.

People spent $861.1 billion shopping online with U.S. retailers last year, up 44 percent from the year before thanks to the pandemic per Digital Commerce 360. With the online shopping boom comes more opportunities to make money off fake items. While high price point items like fake watches and handbags have always been popular, cheaper things like hand sanitizer and masks have also increased in prevalence. “Counterfeit items respond to changes in consumer behavior,” said brand protection company Incopro CEO Simon Baggs. “What’s selling is what people are searching for.” 

And, it seems that the majority of fake items may be coming from the same sellers without anything to stop them. Incopro looked at more than 1.5 million IP infringement notices automatically filed on behalf of over 750 brands on 34 different online marketplaces including Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from November 2019 to November 2020. Overall, it estimates companies lose about $320 billion annually on consumers purchasing illicit goods, whether they know it or not.

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Three Strikes and Out: How E-commerce Marketplaces Can Protect Consumers from Repeat Breachers

Incopro’s white paper provides brands, e-commerce platforms and legislators with data on the proportion of repeat infringements undertaken by the same sellers, who use key global online marketplaces and social media platforms to infringe intellectual property. Learn how platforms can protect brands and consumers can by implementing strong seller verification and a 'three-strikes-and-out' policy.

Access the paper