“Counterfeit goods can allegedly be found in large volumes on Indiamart, including counterfeit pharmaceuticals, electronics, and apparel. Right holders are concerned with Indiamart’s failure to adequately implement anti-counterfeiting best practices, including seller verification, penalties against known sellers of counterfeit goods, or proactive monitoring of infringing goods,” said a report by USTR.
A goal of preparing the “notorious market” list, the report said, was to motivate appropriate action by the private sector and governments to reduce piracy and counterfeiting.
The report said right holders were concerned with Indiamart’s failure to adequately implement anti-counterfeiting best practices, including seller verification, penalties against known sellers of counterfeit goods, or proactive monitoring of infringing goods.
“Indiamart apparently has a notice-and-takedown system, but right holders report that it is burdensome to use, the time-to-takedown is slow, and the status of notices is not transparently communicated to right holders,” the report said.
Indiamart wrote in a response to ET that it was a “law-abiding company” and had zero tolerance for any misuse of its website for illegitimate or illegal activities.
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“Our grievance redressal system is robust and efficient, which allows users to send complaints via the website and in lieu of such complaints the redressal is forwarded to the said advertiser for diligence. This is done to comply with the true spirit of the law and equal opportunity is given to all content advertisers,” said the statement from Indiamart.
It said that the USTR published the report without any prior communication and did not give it a chance to respond to the allegations. “We will get in touch with them to seek details of instances which led them to believe that our process is lax in this regard,” the company said.
Apart from Indiamart, online platforms such China’s Alibaba, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Wechat, Indonesia’s Tokopedia, and Singapore’s Shopee were also on the notorious markets list. It also listed physical marketplaces and included bazaars in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
