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10 December 2018

Online counterfeit enforcement: A game of cat and mouse

In September, the market value of e-commerce site Amazon briefly hit $1 trillion, before falling back below that threshold. To date, it is just the second company to have reached this milestone; the only other company to celebrate this achievement is Apple, just one month before.

With more and more people shunning the high street and turning to the digital world of online shopping, e-commerce sites find themselves in an important position.

According to market statistics portal Statista, an estimated 1.66 billion people worldwide purchased goods online in 2017. Global e-retail sales equated to $2.3 trillion during the same year, with that figure forecast to reach $4.48 trillion by 2021.

While shopping without having to step out of the front door might be more convenient for many consumers, it does come with risks for customers and brands.

As technology has changed the way that we shop, counterfeiters have evolved. They have been provided with more opportunities to target consumers and hide their identity behind fake entities.

Help for fakers

Daniel Anthony, associate at Canada-based Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh, says that the internet has played a dramatic role in helping counterfeiters.

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