As the holiday season comes to an end, the aftermath of Christmas shopping is becoming increasingly clear. January has brought a wave of consumer complaints, enforcement challenges, and brand protection concerns.
From fake websites promoted through social media adverts to platform-wide enforcement delays caused by seasonal demand. In this edition, we take a closer look at the key counterfeiting trends, enforcement issues, and marketplace response times shaping the start of the year.
Christmas Gift Disappointment: The Rise of Fake Websites
In the run-up to Christmas, we saw a significant increase in standalone websites selling viral products using copied photography belonging to legitimate product owners. These sites do not hold authorised stock. In some cases, customers receive a low-quality imitation; in others, nothing arrives at all. Refunds are rarely, if ever, issued.
What makes these websites particularly dangerous is how they are promoted. Many are linked directly from social media adverts, presenting themselves as official brand sites. While scrolling during the busy festive period, consumers are drawn in by eye-catching ads while searching for the perfect Christmas gift.
A common pattern has emerged across these sites:
- They often use the same website template.
- The domain names are typically made up of two unrelated words joined together, such as “extendlongs,” “impressbe,” or “gracefancy.”
- A contact email address is listed in the footer, but messages go unanswered.
- Once payment is taken, refunds are not provided.
How to Avoid Falling Victim to Fake Websites
To help consumers and brand owners identify these fraudulent sites, we recommend the following checks:
- Check for trademarks: If the product displays a trademark or brand name, ensure you are purchasing directly from the brand’s official website. If you’re unsure, search for the genuine site independently rather than clicking through from an advert.
- Inspect the imagery: If the product itself does not show a trademark, it may have been digitally removed or replaced. These sites rely heavily on stolen imagery.
- Reverse image search: Take one of the main product images and run a reverse image search. The genuine website will typically appear as the original source, often alongside a wider product range and clear branding.
- Be wary of generic names: Authentic brands rarely use randomly combined two-word domain names.
TikTok: Fast Enforcement, Limited Support
TikTok continues to prioritise automation across its enforcement systems. When reporting registered IP, takedown times are often impressively fast. However, automation has also introduced significant challenges.
We have seen copyright reports rejected despite being submitted in formats that have previously been accepted hundreds of times. These automation issues extend beyond IP enforcement and into seller account management.
Seller accounts are being disabled, and identification documents rejected, with little to no explanation. TikTok’s customer support has proven largely unresponsive, leading many sellers to escalate issues publicly on LinkedIn. In several cases, posting support issues as LinkedIn posts and tagging TikTok appears to be the only way to attract a response.
Ecommerce marketplaces IP Infringement removal times
The Christmas period also impacted enforcement response times across several marketplaces. Due to the sheer volume of infringing listings reported, some platforms struggled to maintain their usual removal speeds.
Key observations from January include:
- TikTok Shop (USA): Increased removal times, though response times for standard TikTok video takedowns have improved.
- Wish: Notable improvement in response times compared to previous months.
- Lazada: High response times across most territories, with significant delays in some regions. This contrasts sharply with AliExpress, which uses the same IP platform and continues to respond promptly, improving further since last month.
- Amazon: Greater consistency across countries. Last month, the US lagged behind, but response times have now evened out. The exception remains Amazon.sa, which continues to show slower reactions.
- Walmart and Fruugo: Continue to lead the way as the most efficient platforms, both maintaining average removal times of under one day.
Marketplace Removal times by IP Types
Removal based on patents remains the shortest. However, it is worth noting that several marketplaces do not act upon patent infringement notifications. In these cases IP Moat would typically rely on trademark, copyright and other methods to remove infringing listings.
If you have any questions about how your IP can be enforced across different marketplaces, you can get in touch with our team here.
