We’ve explored how brands protect themselves on eBay, Craigslist and Alibaba in previous blog posts, and now we will explore counterfeiting on Kijiji, an online marketplace for posting local advertisements.

Kijiji is a subsidiary of eBay, and is available in countries around the world such as Canada, Italy, China and Japan.

Counterfeits on Kijiji have been a significant problem from selling fake smartphones and bus passes to knock-off jerseys and concert tickets.

Counterfeit products are not allowed on Kijiji. Items that infringe on the intellectual property rights are prohibited, but the onus of brand protection on Kijiji lies with brand owners.

How Kijiji fights counterfeiting

Behind the scenes, Kijiji has a system that is designed to block ads that contain keywords, such as fakes, copies, and knock-offs.

Kijiji has a feature to help staff review listings by using a random delay of 24 hours for certain ads.

They also claim to review most of the ads before they go online to ensure that they comply with Kijiji policy; although, the legitimacy of this claim is suspect due to the volume of items posted on Kijiji and the number of fakes that appear on the online marketplace.

Report the listing

Anyone that notices ads that appear to be selling fakes can flag the listing. They can go to the Report Ad drop-down menu and click on Type of Reason.

Users need to enter their email address and type the reason they are flagging the posting, such as by stating “This ad is offering counterfeit merchandise” and click Submit. This will bring the ad to the attention of Kijiji’s moderation team.

Submit Notice of Claimed Infringement

Kijiji allows brand owners to police their brands in a somewhat similar way that eBay does. Like eBay, members are able to become part of the Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) program and fill out a Notice of Claimed Infringement.

This is a simple three-page report. Brand holders enter their contact information and declare their legal authority to act on behalf of the brand.

Next, they need to state that they believe the listings that are identified contain products that are not authorized by the brand owner.

Finally, brand owners need to state what type of infringement has occurred.

The VeRO program bumps up the priority in which ads are considered for removal and allows brands to report multiple ads that could be violating their intellectual property.

If brands decide to take legal action against an infringer, they should hire a private investigator and lawyer that specialize in brand protection so that evidence is collected in a legal and ethical manner and can hold up in court.

Photo Source: Flickr