E-commerce Association Affirms No Room For Selling Counterfeit Goods

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Ecommerce Association (IdEA) said that Indonesian e-commerce will continue to fight counterfeit or pirated products, to the point of eliminating products that violate copyright.

This was conveyed by IdEA in response to the entry of a number of popular e-commerce in Indonesia such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and also e-commerce from Singapore which also operates in the country, Shopee, to the 2021 Notorius Market List released by the United States Trade Representative Office. (USTR).

"IdEA routinely reminds its members to remain careful and monitor all forms of sales in our members' e-commerce by following existing regulations," said IdEA Chairman Bima Laga to reporters, quoted Wednesday, February 23.

On this list, Shopee is considered to have burdensome, decentralized, ineffective, and slow notification and removal procedures. It is also said that Shopee does not yet have an environment in which sellers are deterred from offering counterfeit goods, in part due to inadequate sanctions and the lack of cooperation between Shopee and rights holders in investigations.

Meanwhile, Bukalapak is considered to have made improvements to its anti-counterfeiting system, including the seller inspection protocol and the deletion process. However, rights holders remain concerned that these protocols are not sufficient to prevent counterfeit goods sellers from registering on the platform.

On the other hand, despite being included in this list, Tokopedia is considered to have made improvements in the reporting and removal system, as well as increasing engagement with various brands to address concerns about counterfeiting on its platform.

Tokopedia has published an intellectual property protection microsite, implemented proactive monitoring, implemented penalties for intellectual property violators, ran partnerships with brand owners, and ran awareness campaigns on the importance of protecting intellectual rights for users and consumers.

Based on data on the Tokopedia microsite, throughout 2021 Tokopedia has collaborated with more than 12,000 brands or principals to protect Intellectual Property and closed more than 25,000 stores that violate IPR.

Bima added that the problem of circulating counterfeit products does not only occur in Indonesia, but also in many other countries' e-commerce. Even if there are complaints about goods that are suspected of violating copyright, then the brand or brand holder can submit an objection to the seller, not to e-commerce.

"For example, we say that brand A belongs to America whose products are imitated, they should be the ones making the complaint! It's not the association or other parties who filed the complaint," he explained.

"When they submit an objection to the alleged copyright infringement in e-commerce, then the platform acts by complying with all the rules, of course by taking down the product. That is probably the farthest thing the platform has done," continued Bima.

Previously, IdEA has also entered into a cooperation agreement in support of the legal protection policy for intellectual property. There are five e-commerce companies that carry out this collaboration, namely Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Shopee, Lazada and Blibli.com. In addition, other e-commerce players must continue to take various steps to prevent the circulation of pirated goods and their respective platforms.

IdEA affirms this commitment as a form of continued support for the e-commerce industry for the Proudly Made in Indonesia National Movement (BBI). Gernas BBI will try to encourage the economic revival of MSME actors who were affected by the pandemic and prepare them to settle more in the digital industry.