BREAKING NEWS: The first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List has been published!

The first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List has been published by the European Commission (EC) today. It identifies marketplaces, registrars and hosting providers located outside the EU which are engaged in facilitating substantial counterfeiting and piracy. 

Background 

On 22 January 2018, the EC launched the public consultation with the aim to establish its first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List containing marketplaces located outside the EU. 

The Watch List is part of one of the measures adopted by the EU (reported by this Kat here) with the aim of stepping up the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, by raising “consumer awareness concerning the environmental, product safety and other risks of purchasing” on the marketplaces identified on the Watch-List, and encouraging “their operators and owners to crack down on intellectual property abuse”. 

The findings 

The Watch List is divided into four chapters covering online marketplaces offering content protected by copyright, e-commerce platforms, online pharmacies, and physical marketplaces. 

The first chapter of the Watch List is dedicated to online marketplaces offering content protected by copyright and services providers that facilitate access to such content. Among others, Sci-hub.tw/#about, ThePirateBay.org, Torrentz2.eu, Popcorn Time and the hosting provider CloudFlare are included. 

The chapter of e-commerce platforms was highly expected. Bukalapak, EVO Company Group (Tiu.ru, Prom.ua, Bigl.ua, Deal.by, and Satu.kz), Lazada, Snapdeal, Xxjcy.com, and China-telecommunications.com were listed here. However, Alibaba platforms (Aliexpress, Tmall, Taobao and 1688), Amazon and eBay were not included despite it was reported they offer a “significant volume of allegedly counterfeit goods”. This on the grounds that the platforms are open to cooperate, apply proactive measures to remove infringing content and are signatories of the Memorandum of Understanding on the sale of counterfeit goods via the internet (more about MoU by this Kat here). 

The third chapter is focused on online pharmacies in which the domain registrars CJSC Registrar 101, EP1K Inc and ZhuHai NaiSiNike Information Technology Co are listed. 

Finally, physical marketplaces located in Argentina, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam are included on the Watch List.