President Trump signs trade memorandum on counterfeit products
President Donald Trump puts Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and other online marketplaces on notice, signing a memorandum that aims to curb the sale of counterfeit items online.
“This is a shot across the bow to those companies. If you don’t clean it up, then the government will,” Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro told reporters, reports CNBC.
The administration will require a report within 210 days from the Departments of Homeland Security, Commerce and Justice, according to the memorandum. It will analyze how widespread the problem is and how effective current responses are, while recommending potential regulatory or legislative changes to better combat the sale of fake goods.
In justifying the action, Navarro in part cited a 2018 Government Accountability Office report showing widespread issues with counterfeiting. The agency’s investigators purchased brand name products from third-party vendors on sites such as Amazon, Walmart.com, Sears, Newegg.com and eBay and found 40 percent of the goods were fake.
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company “strictly prohibits the sale of counterfeit products” and welcomes “additional coordinated support from law enforcement so we can hold bad actors accountable.”
Navarro denied that the measure, which targets Amazon, was in any way connected to Trump’s oft-stated disdain for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, an outlet that has reported extensively on Trump’s overseas businesses and the Mueller probe.
More Amazon news
Amazon got caught copying products and manipulating search results
Amazon got caught cheating? Amazon has been repeatedly accused of copying third-party sellers’ products and then manipulating the search results to favor Amazon’s own brands. The company has denied the accusations. Reuters got access to internal Amazon documents...
China energy crisis wreaks havoc in the manufacturing sector
China in the dark Factories in China's busiest manufacturing provinces have been ordered to suspend production for up to a week or even longer, prompting concern global supplies of goods might be disrupted. China is in the midst of an energy crisis that has turned...
China stands up to protect intellectual property
E-commerce sites must guard intellectual property or be shut in China China plans to tighten oversight of e-commerce platforms like Alibaba Group over the infringement of intellectual property rights. Companies would lose their trading...
