Big brands bring the fight to Big Tech
Brands such as Louis Vuitton and Canon see Brussels’
future rules on online platforms as their long-awaited chance to crack down on
counterfeit.
By LAURA
KAYALI AND MELISSA HEIKKILÄ 6/8/20, 6:00 AM CET Updated 6/9/20, 4:37 AM CET
Brands like Chanel have long pressed tech firms to
fight harder against counterfeit products sold online
For years,
powerhouses like LVMH, Chanel and Nike have tried to force Silicon Valley
giants to stamp out counterfeit products online.
Now their
luck may be about to turn.
With the
European Commission preparing new rules for platforms, brands ranging from
fashion giants to tech companies are ramping up efforts to make rivals like
Amazon and Facebook more accountable for checking products online.
The
standoff is playing out in lobby groups across Europe and the United States, as
the EU's executive arm prepares to unveil its package of measures on platform
liability, known as the Digital Services Act, by the end of this year, and the
Trump administration pushes for tougher action against counterfeit goods.
In the
European Union, platforms are not legally responsible for the content they
host, but do have to take posts down once flagged. Tech companies enjoy similar
legal protections in the U.S. under Section 230 of the Communications Decency
Act.
“Platforms
have shown through the coronavirus crisis that they can address illegal content
and goods online. Why not continue?" — Michelle Gibbons, the director general
of the European brands association AIM
But over
the past few months, as the coronavirus crisis has put a spotlight on scams and
fake products being sold online, the European Commission has become ready to
propose stricter rules.
“Platforms
have shown through the coronavirus crisis that they can address illegal content
and goods online. Why not continue? There shouldn’t be anything controversial
about removing illegal goods and it’s in everyone’s interest to address this
issue,” said Michelle Gibbons, the director general of the European brands
association AIM, which represents household names such as Louis Vuitton,
Chanel, Lego and Nike.
Boiling
over
Tension
between brands and platforms has been brewing for years.
In January,
French luxury conglomerate LVMH’s CEO Bernard Arnault slammed Amazon in an
earnings conference call, arguing the e-commerce giant was making money from
counterfeit goods.
As the
Commission seeks input from industry on its Digital Services Act, both sides
are wary of a public dustup following a vicious battle over online copyright
rules. But behind closed doors, tensions do emerge.
In lobby
groups that bring together brands and platforms, the two sides sometimes have
trouble forging common positions on future rules for tech companies, according
to two industry players who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were
not allowed to talk about internal discussions.
At least
one lobbying group, BASCAP, the anti-counterfeiting arm of the International
Chamber of Commerce, has seen brands depart after what people at several
companies said on the condition of anonymity were disagreements over pushing
legislation instead of voluntary measures on counterfeit. BASCAP did not
comment.
Push for
binding rules
Under the
previous Commission, music labels, press publishers and the audiovisual
industry won more tools to deal with Silicon Valley giants via the
controversial copyright reform.
But brands
felt that their concerns were not sufficiently taken into consideration.
In 2017, a
group formed the Together Against Counterfeiting Alliance (TACA), gathering
high-end fashion companies such as Chanel and LVMH, but also tech brands such
as Apple. The group argues that voluntary measures — such as the Commission’s
Memorandum of Understanding in which platforms and brands pledge to fight
against counterfeit — are not enough to tackle the full scale of the problem.
LVMH declined to comment for this story.
The current
voluntary measures lack transparency, argued Måns Sjöstrand, head of
intellectual property and brand protection at Swedish watch brand Daniel
Wellington, which belongs to TACA. “Platforms claim they are doing a lot, but
it's impossible to verify that,” he said.
A similar
argument has been playing out in the United States, where brands including
Birkenstock and PopSockets, a smartphone accessories company, have ended their
direct sales relationship with Amazon over concerns about counterfeiting.
The issue
has not eluded Washington power players either. Congress has called hearings to
specifically discuss the proliferation of counterfeit products online, and the
Trump administration released a plan in January that outlined steps for the
government and private sector to work in tandem to address counterfeit
products.
In April,
the Trump administration released a list of so-called notorious markets that
for the first time included the foreign operations of a U.S. company: Amazon’s
websites in Canada, the U.K., Germany, France and India — granting brands fresh
ammunition. (Amazon called Washington's move "purely political.")
‘Know your
customer’
Platforms
have ramped up efforts to fight counterfeiting in recent years. A spokesperson
for Amazon said the company invested “over $500 million in 2019 and has more
than 8,000 employees protecting [their] store from fraud and abuse.”
Even
platforms struggle to approach the problem as a united front.
A
spokesperson for Facebook said that in the second half of 2019, the company
removed 490,000 pieces of content in response to about 50,000 counterfeit
reports submitted.
In addition
to taking down flagged items and proactive monitoring, Chinese giant Alibaba
said it collaborates with brands to share knowledge on best practices, and has
taken an aggressive litigation strategy, and illegal actors “will face criminal
and civil litigation,” said Matthew Bassiur, the head of global IP enforcement
at Alibaba Group.
Despite
these efforts, “it’s still like comparing Chernobyl with [the Three Mile Island
nuclear accident in] Harrisburg,” Pennsylvania, Daniel Wellington's Sjöstrand
said.
One of the
likely future bones of contention with platforms in the Digital Services Act
will be the so-called know your business customer principle, which would
require platforms, including online marketplaces, to vet their traders.
“The
middlemen should verify the identity of the sellers. They don’t at the moment,
there is no way to trace liability in case of consumer or business harm,” AIM’s
Gibbons said.
Brands also
want platforms to do more to track down illegal products proactively and ensure
they don’t reappear online.
Brands vs.
Tech vs. Tech
The
counterfeit debate also pits tech companies against tech companies, as hardware
heavyweights such as Apple, HP and Canon want platforms to do more against fake
products online.
Apple, HP,
Amazon, Google and others have to work together on common Digital Services Act
positions in tech-focused trade associations such as DigitalEurope and ITI.
In
DigitalEurope's paper on the Digital Services Act, the know your business
customer principle is briefly mentioned — acknowledging that some hardware
brands want to introduce it, yet urging caution.
Asked
whether Apple was satisfied with the way online marketplaces deal with
counterfeit, a spokesperson redirected POLITICO to a statement made by the
company's senior director for intellectual property in the U.S. House of
Representatives in March, which calls for more vetting of sellers and more
cooperation with brands. The iPhone maker is among the most counterfeited
brands.
But Apple's
app store is also a platform, meaning the tech giant will not push for too
radical an overhaul of the digital intermediary's liability regime.
And even
platforms struggle to approach the problem as a united front.
“I would
say that social media and chat apps are now the wild west of counterfeit and IP
infringement activity, and these social media and chat apps are being used to
circumvent our proactive measures,” Alibaba’s Bassiur said.
Steven
Overly in Washington contributed reporting.
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