The Philippines distributor has filed criminal charges against the online
shopping site Lazada over the online sale of fake products online. Rocket
Internet owns Lazada, which is one of the largest B2C eCommerce markets in
South East Asia.
Rosa Fiore issued a Facebook post saying that they had filed criminal
charges against officers of Lazada.com.ph for IP infringement under the Intellectual
Property Code. "We have not consented to any sale of such products by
Lazada.com.ph and and is not in any way connected with the website and
therefore cannot guarantee the authenticity and/or genuineness of the product
sold by the said website," they said. The case was filed at the Office of
the City Prosecutor of Makati in Central Manila.
In a separate statement, Lazada said it has removed the trader which
sold the fake Etude House products. They apparently investigated the
counterfeit allegations raised. They had concluded there were questions around the authenticity of the
offerings, so "the merchant has been promptly removed," the company
said. Lazada also assured its customers
that feedback regarding products is taken seriously. They have a "zero
tolerance policy towards non-compliant sellers." Their policy includes
investigating merchants, removal of products and a money back return policy.
It is perhaps an aggressive step, but Philippines law on this is not
settled. No clear secondary liability structure exists in the IP Code to make online
platforms liable for trademarks, unlike for copyright. As this is a criminal case, it is unlikley to proceed or reach trial any time soon.
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