Some people think of Carousell as a place to buy second-hand items, or to find usually expensive products at cheaper prices.
However, it crosses the line when sellers put up fake goods at a steal, as this violates intellectual property (IP) rights of the brands that own the real thing.
To stop this, Carousell launched the Carousell Rights Owners Programme (CROP) today, a platform that helps brands tackle counterfeit listings on the app.
Brand partners on CROP have the ability to “directly remove listings of brand replicas from Carousell with zero processing time”.
According to CROP’s FAQs, each brand or IP owner will be authorised to take down 1,000 listings per month.
This initiative was first piloted in December 2018, and has so far resulted in 13,000 listings being taken down over nine months.
According to Carousell, their existing counterfeit policy “prohibits the sale of fake products, replicas or counterfeits and the creation of any content that violates any intellectual property rights”.
But prior to CROP, brands had to go through a longer process to first flag listings and provide their URLs to Carousell’s team for processing, before a takedown could be approved.
Essentially, the roll out of CROP aims to drastically reduce the time required for takedowns.
“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.
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.
However, this will not be available to just any and all sellers on Carousell.
Only select brand partners, whose activities will be closely monitored by the firm’s team, will have access to CROP and its content moderation capabilities.
Brands that wish to register can submit an application, which will be reviewed by Carousell in five to 15 business days.
Some brands that are currently onboard include Nike, Grab, and luxury group company Kering, which owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta.
On top of this effort, Carousell said it has also been hiring third party service providers to help moderate and combat counterfeits, as well as working closely with the Singapore Police Force (SPF)’s new Anti-Scam Centre to prevent ecommerce scams.
Featured Image Credit: Carousell
