Washington wants Wish Removed - Shop Safe Act would hold eBay, Amazon, and others liable for counterfeits

[rcmaehl]

Source:
PCMag

House of Representatives

 

Summary:
A proposed bill would hold online marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, Wish) liable for counterfeit products sold on their website.

 

Media:

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.); Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.); Martha Roby (R-Ala.); and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), today introduced the Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-Commerce (SHOP SAFE) Act to stop the online sale of dangerous counterfeits. The bill incentivizes platforms to engage in a set of best practices to curb the presence of counterfeits on their sites. “Consumer lives are at risk because of dangerous counterfeit products...Congress must create accountability to prevent these hazardous items from infiltrating the homes of millions of Americans...requiring online sellers to help prevent the sale of counterfeit products to consumers.” said Collins. “Counterfeiters have followed consumers, and it is clear more must be done to combat the rising trend in online sales of counterfeit products. Consumers should be able to trust that what they see and purchase online is what they will get...The SHOP SAFE Act proposes a set of commonsense measures to tackle the gaps in these platforms’ systems and stop counterfeit sales,” said Nadler. The SHOP SAFE Act would: * Establish trademark liability for companies who sell counterfeits that pose a risk to consumer health and safety. * Require online platforms to establish best practices to vet sellers to ensure their legitimacy, remove counterfeit listings, and remove sellers who repeatedly sell counterfeits. * Call for online marketplaces to take steps necessary to prevent the continued sale of counterfeits by the third-party seller or face contributory liability for their actions.

 

My Thoughts:

It's about time that online marketplaces got regulated like real marketplaces. Fake versions of products are all over eBay, Wish, and other marketplaces. While I can definitely see this bill going overboard if not worded correctly, I'm definitely all for it.

[emosun]

Yeah all this will do is make the fakes harder to spot. 

 

You really think ebay is going to somehow stop fake gpus from being made and listed? Right now they barely have to even try when making a fake card. If it gets more strict theyll be harder to spot. 

 

They are already violating their tos as it is and breaking laws. More laws isnt going to do anything

[RejZoR]

People actually buy things on Wish and ever actually get what they thought they were purchasing? Literally ANYTHING I looked at was sketchy and questionable as hell and was firing all the alarms.

[Touch My Hamm]

Depending on how they want it regulated it could be ok...It seems to be a slippery slop to regulating other things on the internet that people would be scared about. The company selling these fakes should hold some responsibility as they are the ones giving the scammers the platform the do this. There is a difference between a random scammer here or there but the site itself seems to be a complete pool of people scamming or giving false information about products. They should be held to the same standard as other stores where they are responsible for items sold on their store. 

[Dabombinable]

34 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

People actually buy things on Wish and ever actually get what they thought they were purchasing? Literally ANYTHING I looked at was sketchy and questionable as hell and was firing all the alarms.

My Mum bought 2x "10000mAh" solar battery banks. They quite clearly weren't the stated capacity, and indeed 1 of them had a fake solar panel (the other used shitloads of those from-calculator solar cells, aka was useless). She was shocked at just how fake they were when compared to my actually 10000mAh battery bank. Still doesn't believe me about the solar panel being fake though.

That battery bank of mine btw cost the same in store as those other banks, while having 10W wireless charging (and 18W wired).

[mr moose]

Good, online stores need to be held to the same standard as all other stores.

[justpoet]

I'm torn on this.  While it should definitely be an issue of law if a company is selling something fake on amazon, and amazon should be liable especially if the product is being distributed by amazon, and it should also definitely be an issue if a site like wish is basically nothing but scams…it also shouldn't be ebay's issue if I claim I have an intel 9900KS in 3 years but it was actually a 9900K that I was just running at the same speeds, so didn't remember.

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

Source:
PCMag

House of Representatives

 

Summary:
A proposed bill would hold online marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, Wish) liable for counterfeit products sold on their website.

 

Media:

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

 

My Thoughts:

It's about time that online marketplaces got regulated like real marketplaces. Fake versions of products are all over eBay, Wish, and other marketplaces. While I can definitely see this bill going overboard if not worded correctly, I'm definitely all for it.

I hope they realize that the reason counterfeits are hard to spot is because the manufacturers won't tell eBay/Amazon what authentic devices look like, and more to the point, giving that information to eBay/Amazon results in it leaking to the counterfeiters.

 

Trust me. I worked for eBay in that department, and basically any proactive action taken against counterfeits without a VeRO claim is anywhere between "this looks suspicious" and "this seller is suspicious"

 

You can look on line for guides about how to avoid counterfeits, but the problem is that there are large swaths of counterfeit merchandise, I could easily find you 100 items, per day, that made it past the filters , and no amount of human power can get them all. My pet peeve was taking down counterfeit games, but since I don't work there any more, it seems like the counterfeit games just exploded instead. Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, etc don't send VeRO takedowns anywhere frequently enough to keep counterfeit rubbish off eBay, and the companies don't tell eBay how to spot authentic devices. Nintendo does send VeRO notices, but usually so far past the point of consequence that it does nothing.

 

So things like counterfeit flash drives, sd cards, ssd's, etc, are big money. Counterfeit chargers and batteries are big money and bloody dangerous. How do you keep that stuff off the site when they can be swapped for counterfeits in the logistics channel? Blockchain keeps getting mentioned, and keeps not getting used. Start tracking the entire logistics chain of custody so that items with duplicate tracking id's get flagged.

 

 

 

 

[Tech_Dreamer]

Sounds good. Should level out the lowest tier easy scammers completely.

[ARikozuM]

This is good. Small businesses have to do a lot of homework to make sure that their products are safe and up to regulations, why shouldn't the big businesses invest the same time and energy.

[Soppro]

While this is all well and good, I don't know how they'd enforce this, how would they check if a product is fake or not? There's already systems in place to report illegitimate sellers so I don't see how it would help there (but that works only after someone's purchased a fake good), and these marketplaces can only check the authenticity of a product if they physically have it so ... I don't know?? Perhaps they can do further checks on the identity of sellers, but that would mean more hassle for people just trying to sell a book on eBay, for example ...

[LeSheen]

11 hours ago, RejZoR said:

People actually buy things on Wish and ever actually get what they thought they were purchasing? Literally ANYTHING I looked at was sketchy and questionable as hell and was firing all the alarms.

Yea I did. But I would never buy any electronics on it. I did buy a knife and an led strip which both were as advertised.

[williamcll]

Pretty sure people by now only go to wish.com just to buy counterfeits.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I normally don't like Gevernment regulation because it tends to go too far but when retailers, manufacturers, etc. can't regulate themselves, then someone has to step in. In this case, big retailers like Amazon or Fleabay that provide a platform for smaller vendors to sell on have not been doing an adequate job of vetting those vendors that sell on their sites (esecially Fleabay), making stepped up regulation and enforcement by the Government a necessity. In this case, I feel it's passed time the Governent took action.

[paddy-stone]

I have not seen any "fakes" on wish.. fake means that they are represented as being the original product in question, not a facsimile. I'm not saying they don't exist, just haven't seen any claiming to be.

[RonnieOP]

No need for regulation tbh.

 

If you go on wish and buy a 2080ti for 1/3 of the price and think its legit thats on you. 

 

Also amazon, ebay, etc already have perfectly fine refund policies. To the point that sellers are easier to scam then buyers.

[Master Disaster]

18 hours ago, mr moose said:

Good, online stores need to be held to the same standard as all other stores.

Except they're not stores, they're marketplaces and markets are exactly where you'd expect to find dodgy shit for sale.

[mr moose]

2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Except they're not stores, they're marketplaces and markets are exactly where you'd expect to find dodgy shit for sale.

They are a commercial enterprise service providing actual businesses with an online presence.  If it was a private seller who only sold 2 or 3 things a month then I would agree, but these stores (which are stores) are selling thousands of items a week and Ebay is a partner to this in that its service allows it.   And its about time, the internet has brought with it a whole lot of headaches for society. I'm glad governments are starting to realize that just because something is done digitally over the internet doesn't mean it should be exempt from the law. 

[Orangeator]

I think a better way of going about this is ensuring buyer protection for this who were scammed. Meaning if I buy a fake GPU on wish, then the legislation would force Wish to refund it and pay any kind of "restocking fee" or shipping. 

[Andreas Lilja]

Good idea.

 

I don't even order from eBay anymore because of counterfeits.

[Andreas Lilja]

3 hours ago, RonnieOP said:

No need for regulation tbh.

 

If you go on wish and buy a 2080ti for 1/3 of the price and think its legit thats on you. 

 

Also amazon, ebay, etc already have perfectly fine refund policies. To the point that sellers are easier to scam then buyers.

Is there compensation for time wasted processing said refund? It's a hassle for both the consumer and store.

 

Also counterfeits are getting really good, big thing right now is reproduction console video games.

[RonnieOP]

1 hour ago, Andreas Lilja said:

Is there compensation for time wasted processing said refund? It's a hassle for both the consumer and store.

 

Also counterfeits are getting really good, big thing right now is reproduction console video games.

Compensation for time wasted isnt a thing when it comes to any retail purchase.

 

If I buy a product from best buy and it craps out and i return it they dont pay for my time to go back to the store.

 

And with onine retailers theres not much hassle outside taking it to the post office, hell amazon will have UPs come pick it up from your house for free these days.

[Fnige]

On 3/4/2020 at 8:44 AM, Dabombinable said:

My Mum bought 2x "10000mAh" solar battery banks. They quite clearly weren't the stated capacity, and indeed 1 of them had a fake solar panel (the other used shitloads of those from-calculator solar cells, aka was useless). She was shocked at just how fake they were when compared to my actually 10000mAh battery bank. Still doesn't believe me about the solar panel being fake though.

That battery bank of mine btw cost the same in store as those other banks, while having 10W wireless charging (and 18W wired).

i mean, you could find "160,000mA/h" batteries on there

[RonnieOP]

also this would be damn near impossible to implement. you can already report sellers on amazon and ebay. but they just make a new account.

[Sir0Tek]

Mixed bag. If it does prevent sellers from selling scum it would be good, but if it also prevents cheap(er) alternatives to otherwise quite expensive major-label products then it would interfere in free-market. An example: If it prevents selling a 1080Ti which is in fact a gtx560Ti that would be o.k., but if there's an oem/no-name 1080Ti - and marked as such - which is about as good as a big label 1080Ti then a counterfeit-claim it would harm the free market.