Carousell launches anti-counterfeit program to protect brand partners

Online classified-ad service Carousell has launched an anti-counterfeit program that aims to identify fake goods being listed for sale.

The Carousell Rights Owners Programme (Crop), aims to provide assurance to both brands, whose rights are more closely protected, and users, who can purchase with greater confidence on the marketplace platform. It allows trusted brand partners to directly remove listings of brand replicas from Carousell with zero processing time, tightening the content moderation process by drastically reducing the time required for takedowns.

During a trial of the anti-counterfeit program which started last December, Crop has taken down 13,000 listings over nine months. Only select brand partners, whose activities will be closely monitored by Carousell, will have access to Crop and its content-moderation capabilities.

Brands to sign up to Crop include Nike, Grab and luxury group Kering, which owns brands such as Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta.

“We want to create a trusted marketplace platform and protect Carousellers from inadvertently purchasing counterfeits or unauthorised goods, while at the same time protecting brands’ rights,” said Carousell head of legal Serena Darcel Chin. “Crop allows us to proactively address both these issues seamlessly, eliminating any delay in action altogether. Once a listing has been deemed counterfeit and removed directly by the brand through Crop, the seller will automatically receive an email to notify them of the takedown due to their item’s infringement of Intellectual Property (IP) rights.”

Carousell’s existing counterfeit policy prohibits the sale of fake products, replicas or counterfeits and the creation of any content that violates any intellectual property rights. Prior to the new anti-counterfeit program, there was a longer process from the flagging of an item to the actual takedown, as its URL had to be first submitted to Carousell’s brand protection team for processing. To ensure swift action, Carousell is looking to further streamline and automate Crop’s processes in the near future.

“Trust and safety continue to be a key priority for Carousell,” said Carousell VP operations Su Lin Tan. “Carousell has been collaborating with and supporting the police’s efforts in combating the sale of counterfeit goods on its platform. We are invested in building a holistically safe and conducive environment for buying and selling and have seen very promising results from our combined efforts to tackle counterfeits.”

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