Cracking the whip: E-comm policy to deal with online counterfeits

New Delhi: The upcoming e-commerce policy will make it tougher for sellers to peddle fakes online. The policy, likely to be out in March, will detail a plan of action for consumers and companies to deal with counterfeit products sold online.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is looking at various ways through which fakes sold on e-marketplaces can be curbed. Officials said the department will study the recent steps proposed by the US to curb counterfeit imports through third-party sales on online retailers.



“The e-commerce policy will certainly deal with counterfeits,” said an official in the know of the details.

The official added that the department would examine the American policy which proposes higher oversight of US warehouses and ramped up fines and penalties for violations. The new US strategy is to shift the liability for counterfeit goods from third parties to e-commerce platforms.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) wants similar measures for the Indian e-commerce market. India’s draft national e-commerce policy released last year had extensively talked of online counterfeits and called it a “worrisome trend”.

It had prescribed anti-counterfeiting measures such as asking e-commerce entities to publicly share all relevant details of sellers who make their products available on their platforms of. It mandated all sellers/retailers to furnish an undertaking of genuineness of products to the platforms and asked the platforms to make these accessible to consumers.

“Mechanisms to enable trademark owners (and licensees) to be informed about any possible counterfeit product being sold on a platform have been included in the policy,” the department had said in the draft wherein it asked platform to seek authorisation from trademark owners before listing high value goods, cosmetics or goods having impact on public health on their websites.