EBay's fight against illegal and counterfeited medicines on the eBay marketplace - WHO IMPACT Conference, Lisbon, December 12-13, 2007
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eBay‘s fight against illegal and counterfeited medicines on the eBay marketplace WHO IMPACT Conference, Lisbon, December 12-13, 2007 Dr. Wolf Osthaus, European Legislative Counsel eBay December 12, 2007
The evolution of marketplaces
But things have changed in times of digitalization.
2
Distance becomes less important – eBay’s global footprint
38 localized eBay site or majority investment
Minority investment
sites
Americas
USA Asia/Pacific
Canada Australia
Argentina* South Korea
Brazil* New Zealand
Chile* Taiwan
Colombia* China
Domin. Republic Singapore
Ecuador* Hong Kong
Mexico* India
Panama* Philippines
Peru* Malaysia
Uruguay* Thailand
Venezuela*
*MercadoLibre sites
Europe
Members Austria Belgium
from more France Germany
Ireland Italy
than 150 Netherlands Spain
countries Switzerland Sweden
UK Poland
3 Turkey
New dimensions thanks to automated procedures
222 Mio Globally approx.
Approx. 248 mill. 102 mill. listings
registered users at any given time
globally In more than 50,000
categories
About 6 mill.
new listings
added every day
10 Mio
$52 Mrd.
1999 2006 52,4 bill. $
Gross Merchandise
Volume 2006 globally,
(every second goods
More than 1,3 million
traded worth 1,812 $)
people worldwide earn a
relevant part of their
living by selling
on eBay.
$3 Mrd.
4
1999 2006
The rise of technological intermediaries
Host
provider 1. Create a listing 2. Search for an item
level
The seller The buyer
3. Conclusion of the contract
Transaction
level
4. Payment
5. Shipping
5
An array of potential abuses Any illegal listing is detrimental to our users and the eBay marketplace 6
Our three-step safety system
Statutes Policies
7
Prevention
Prevention Detection Repression
Education
• Clear policies (adapted to local laws)
• Warning messages
• Help pages / Safety Center
• Public campaigns
Exchange of intelligence with state authorities on
• „Hot“ prohibited and restricted items
• New modi operandi
8
Policies, adapted to local laws
ebay.co.uk
ebay.com
ebay.de (US)
9
Exception: Pharmacies selling on eBay Germany 226 pharmacies allowed to sell (non-prescription) pharmaceuticals on eBay after they went through strict admittance procedures. 10
eBay Seller Warning Messages
Links to
• relevant eBay policies
• Third party information
11Detection
Prevention Detection Repression
• We allocate significant resources
¾ People – more than 2,000 people dedicated to Trust and Safety on eBay
¾ Systems – significant investments in technology
• eBay runs comprehensive risk management systems, to detect illegal
activity, mainly based on proactive keyword searches.
• But for some areas close cooperation needed with state authorities and
rights owners to use their specific knowledge to detect and recognize
illegal listings.
– eBay provides tools for notifications
– Constant development of our risk management system
• Quick reaction on all notifications received
12Cooperation needed
Factual uncertainties Legal uncertainties:
Food supplement
Original or Counterfeit? in one country, prescription or even
prohibited drug in another
• We need cooperation with manufacturers and state authorities to get
judgment on factual and legal questions based on their specific knowledge
• We generally follow the assessment of the competent national state
authority
13Anti-piracy solutions offered to rights owners
eBay‘s Verified Rights Owners Program (‚VeRO‘)
• Advanced online detection and reporting tools
– One of the first Notice and Takedown procedures in the industry (º 1998)
– Further technological improvements: reporting tools, VeRO API
• The relevant advantage for ROs: We just trust their assessment.
• Policies that enable us to share contact information of reported infringers with
rights owners who participate in our program
• Rights owners can communicate their policies directly on eBay pages
• To date, more than 18,000 participating rights owners
www.ebay.com/vero
www.ebay.co.uk/vero
14
www.ebay.de/veroReport illegal listings 15
Repression
Prevention Detection Repression
Reactive:
• Fast takedown of prohibited / illegitimate items
• Enforcement against criminal users by warnings and suspensions
and complex technology for the detection of previously suspended users
• Strong level of cooperation with law enforcement:
¾ Data sharing to allow effective prosecution
¾ Support of law enforcement investigations with internal investigations
Proactive:
• Report to and work high risk cases with law enforcement
• eBay does trainings for police, public prosecutors and criminal judges
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• Support national & international networkingConclusions • Fighting illegal activities in the net is an arms race. • eBay is highly interested and engaged in keeping a well-lit and clean marketplace. • We can only prevail if all forces cooperate (internet providers, manufacturers, state authorities, law enforcements, customs etc.). • Different legal regulations in single countries are a challenge. • Thus: International harmonization is clearly desirable and will help to better prevent the illegal sale of medicines and especially counterfeited medicines over the net. 17
Thanks for your attention!
Contact:
Dr. Wolf Osthaus
Legislative Counsel Europe
email: wosthaus@ebay.com
Phone: +49. 30. 8019. 5314
Fax: +49. 30. 8019. 5303
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