USA Prepares Law to Stop the Online Sale of Counterfeit Goods

The Shop Safe Act of 2020 outlines a series of steps that ecommerce platforms must take to prevent the sale of knockoffs by third-party sellers on their platforms. Ecommerce companies that fail to take these steps can be held liable for the sale of counterfeits, a move that would shift the burden of the onus of proof onto the internet marketplaces. According to US legislators, the rise of ecommerce has contributed to a boom in shipments of counterfeit goods sold online. The OECD has claimed that fake goods accounted for 3.3% of global trade in 2016. The US Department of Homeland Security reported seizures of counterfeit products at U.S. borders have increased 10-fold over the past two decades. Readers will recall that we published a report last month on similar moves in the EU to make e-merchants responsible for hazardous products.