France fights flow of fake products
Source: Agencies |
December 17, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FRANCE intensified the fight to protect its luxury sector yesterday, unveiling a charter that aims to staunch the online flow of fake Louis Vuitton bags, Chanel sunglasses and Dior watches by stepping up cooperation between the brands and the country's e-commerce Websites.
The charter is part of a wider French effort to regulate the Web and protect intellectual property in the Internet age: Lawmakers recently passed legislation that would cut off from the Internet if caught illegally downloading movies and music.
Authorities are also debating how to best respond to Google Book's request to digitize French libraries' collections.
"Web-based counterfeiting mirrors the Internet itself: It's multiform, decentralized, volatile, agile, and difficult to pin down," said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde at yesterday's signing. "Every second, new sites are created in France or abroad ... and we can't afford to wait with our arms crossed as consumer complaints pile up."
She described the charter as "a statement of best practices" that would help standardize cooperation between companies - including luxury labels but also pharmaceutical, cosmetics and apparel manufacturers - that are victims of counterfeiting and the e-commerce Websites through which they are sold on to unwitting consumers.
However, the French charter might prove largely toothless, as the two principle heavyweights of e-commerce - eBay and Amazon - declined to sign on.
The charter stipulates that e-commerce Websites are to put in place a way for companies to report counterfeits they spot for sale online and calls on the sites to quickly remove such items. It also calls on the sites to police themselves.
The charter is part of a wider French effort to regulate the Web and protect intellectual property in the Internet age: Lawmakers recently passed legislation that would cut off from the Internet if caught illegally downloading movies and music.
Authorities are also debating how to best respond to Google Book's request to digitize French libraries' collections.
"Web-based counterfeiting mirrors the Internet itself: It's multiform, decentralized, volatile, agile, and difficult to pin down," said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde at yesterday's signing. "Every second, new sites are created in France or abroad ... and we can't afford to wait with our arms crossed as consumer complaints pile up."
She described the charter as "a statement of best practices" that would help standardize cooperation between companies - including luxury labels but also pharmaceutical, cosmetics and apparel manufacturers - that are victims of counterfeiting and the e-commerce Websites through which they are sold on to unwitting consumers.
However, the French charter might prove largely toothless, as the two principle heavyweights of e-commerce - eBay and Amazon - declined to sign on.
The charter stipulates that e-commerce Websites are to put in place a way for companies to report counterfeits they spot for sale online and calls on the sites to quickly remove such items. It also calls on the sites to police themselves.
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