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The president of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) testified before Italy’s Parliamentary Committee Inquiry on Counterfeiting last week.
Bob Barchiesi outlined the organisation’s efforts in engaging small and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals in combating piracy and counterfeiting on Thursday, March 16.
The committee, which focuses on IP rights enforcement policies, organised the hearing as part of its objective to better understand the scope of, and efforts to address, online counterfeiting.
Barchiesi said that illicit trade online poses an “existential threat” to consumer confidence in the internet as a “safe and trusted platform”.
In order to address this problem, the IACC president said that the “honest co-operation” of all participants in the e-commerce system, such as manufacturers, retailers, commercial platforms, credit card companies, payment service providers and search engines, is required.
Barchiesi also discussed the IACC’s RogueBlock programme, which was developed to enforce IP rights by “following the money”.
The RogueBlock programme works with credit card companies and payment providers to target counterfeiters’ merchant accounts in order to stop the flow of money to e-commerce sites selling fake goods.
Barchiesi said that the RogueBlock programme has terminated 5,300 merchant accounts over the last five years.
“We estimate that the 5,300 merchant accounts terminated as a result of the programme directly impacted well over 200,000 illicit sites. The websites involved, their operators, and their associated merchant accounts have spanned the globe,” he said.
He added that the IACC will continue to work with its “existing partners and other responsible service providers to further impact illicit online trafficking”.
International AntiCounterfeiting Coaltion, IACC, IP, Bob Barchiesi, online counterfeiting, RogueBlock, trademark, Italy’s Parliamentary Committee,
