Now they’re paying attention
It only took a $63 million dollar fine to get eBay to pay attention to the slew of fake luxury goods being sold on its platform. To combat the sale of counterfeit fashion items, eBay has announced a new service they refer to as “eBay Authenticate” that features professional authenticators who will independently verify that a product is legitimate.
How it will work
Designed to help increase confidence in the platform, the program will initially focus on high-end products like purses, handbags, luggage, and other fashion items.
Sellers who wish to have their pricey products inspected must sign up for the authentication service and will pay a fee.
Any products they sell will be examined by an official authenticator, and if the product is determined to be a counterfeit, the shopper will be reimbursed.
Confident shopping
The VP of eBay Consumer Selling, Laura Chambers, said, “For buyers, the service adds another layer of trust to allow them to shop confidently. And for sellers, the service will be most beneficial for those who are looking to part ways with their high-value items but don’t necessarily have a long-established selling history on eBay.
For our more established sellers, the service may not be as meaningful given they’ve likely developed a trusted reputation, but it will certainly be available to all sellers.”
Faux has a new foe
As increasing amount of counterfeit products are finding their way to major website platforms, more of the major players are banding together to crack down on those who sell them.
In November, Amazon announced that it is taking aggressive action to ban counterfeit sellers and Alibaba is pursuing legal action against vendors that sell knockoff goods.
With the sheer volume of money and goods that change hands online, the effectiveness of anti-counterfeit tactics is yet to be seen. However, the fact that two major e-commerce players are actively pursuing methods of preserving consumer and brand confidence is promising.
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