Currently there are a large number of people and organisations selling goods within “online auction houses” that are either suspicious in terms of ethics, counterfeit, or are outright illegal. Monitoring and reacting to these sellers, primarily on “eBay” and other online auction sites, is costing businesses a great deal of internal resource and cost.
A system is needed to monitor and react to such listings in order to enforce brand compliance and also to free up internal investigative resource to focus on more pressing issues.
ComSec offers a standard product for this purpose called WatchDog. The system constantly monitors “eBay” and other online auction sites for key terms and then determines the likelihood that they fall foul of parameters established in conjunction with the client. Should an item fall outside of what is deemed to be acceptable, the system will inform “eBay” that this item needs to be removed. This item can then be tracked to determine at what point it is removed and also logs any correspondence with the seller in accordance with the client’s obligations under the “VERO” scheme.
Sellers are monitored historically so that company’s chosen response can be escalated according to the number of offences – eventually ending up at a stage where it will be possible to take legal action as required.
Our software has helped clients with trade mark and brand image related infringements, specifically preventing:
- counterfeit clothing sales for a well known denim jeans brand owner
- a complex grey market trading chain, selling cosmetic goods
- the potential loss of revenue and profits from illicit sales for an entertainment based company
Downloads
WatchDog.pdf