US closes online stores that offered fake goods

The US government has closed 70 online stores that have defrauded consumers. They sold counterfeit items of various brands. The relevant domain names have therefore been seized.

According to the government, the operation was part of Project Copy Cat, in which the American Immigration and Customs Enforcement is trying, among other things, to detect online stores that infringe trademark law. The authorities tracked down the 70 online stores by making undercover purchases, after which trademark holders confirmed that they were counterfeit products.

The online stores in question shipped all their products from outside the United States, but it is not known which countries were involved. According to the authorities, the websites resembled those of well-known shops and SSL certificates were used to give consumers the impression that they were communicating with reliable online stores that supply branded goods. According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it was not possible for most consumers to distinguish online stores with fake items from real shops.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security, is more likely to seize domain names. This often involves piracy or other forms of copyright infringement. In addition, authorities can seize domain names from websites that are not hosted in the US under the banner of Operation In Our Sites, which includes Project Copy Cat. Critics argue that the controversial measure has little effect, because seized sites often come back with a different URL. In the past two years, authorities have seized 839 domain names due to the In Our Sites project.