Walmart Caught as a Direct Seller of Counterfeit Products
Consumers looking for a good deal may end up with a fake.
September 12, 2017, Los Angeles, CA – Consumers love a good deal, but shopping online at Walmart.com may be risky, dangerous or of little, if any, actual value. Walmart is allowing, enabling and directly selling counterfeit products.
Counterfeit sales wreak devastation on manufacturers and retailers, and destroy U.S. jobs while deceiving consumers with an inexhaustible supply of fake goods.
Walmart would like consumers to believe that Walmart is a safe place to buy name-brand goods, but that's just not true. Many consumers aren’t aware that Walmart is both a direct seller of counterfeit products, and allows third-party sellers to list and sell products, including counterfeits, on Walmart's website - Walmart.com. Alarmingly, counterfeit products can appear right next to authentic items conveying Walmart's endorsement and the illusion they are from Walmart.
The Counterfeit Report®, a consumer advocate and watchdog, has repeatedly found, and also purchased, counterfeits on Walmart.com. After submitting dozens of complaints, authorized by the trademark holders, for the counterfeit products found on its website, some were removed, others remained, some were relisted. Calls to Walmart management were non-productive; Walmart refused a counterfeit refund, could not provide a path for consumers to report fakes, and a promised 48-hr follow-up telephonic response from escalations manager never occurred.
For example; The microSDHC® trademark is owned by SD-3C, LLC, established by Panasonic Corporation, SanDisk Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation (collectively "SD Group"). SD-3C, LLC licenses and enforces intellectual property rights essential to SD Memory Cards and SD. In simplest terms, there is no authentic 64GB microSDHC® product in the microSDHC standard, or any licensed manufacturer's authentic product line.
The Counterfeit Report purchased the in-arguably counterfeit 64GB microSDHC® computer memory card below from Walmart as a direct seller. Actual tested capacity is 12GB - a fraction of the stated 64GB capacity.
Could you identify these fake microSD® and microSDHC® memory cards sold by Walmart.com third party sellers? None exist in the SD standard, or any licensed manufacturer's authentic product line, yet are listed on Walmart.
Consumers cannot determine the actual memory capacity of a counterfeit memory card by simply viewing the capacity displayed on their computer, phone or camera. The counterfeiters are too smart for that, and simply overwrite the real memory capacity with a false capacity to match any capacity they print on the counterfeit packaging and card. Actual capacity may be much less than shown on the product and when reached, exiting data may be overwritten and lost.
The removable microSD memory storage card is an amazing, convenient and trouble-free storage device. When it works, it is unnoticed. When you get a fake, it will be the very core of your frustration, despair and pain – your data will likely disappear and your equipment may be damaged.
Walmart has opened it's website to third party counterfeit sellers, and directly engaged in selling counterfeit products. Companies that facilitate criminal activity and profit from dishonest sales which impact consumer safety, jobs and public trust create a public perception of deception and impunity. However, their reputation damage is inconsequential to the real problem: the value of counterfeit and pirated goods is forecast1 to grow to $2.8 trillion, and cost 5.4 million net job losses by 2022, while the legitimate manufacturers' brand integrity is tarnished or destroyed.
Amazon, eBay, and now Walmart have become the perfect platforms to enable and facilitate the distribution counterfeit goods.
How will consumers react?
Footnote:
1 THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF COUNTERFEITING AND PIRACY
The report was prepared for The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC BASCAP Unit) and The International Trademark Association (INTA)
January 2017
Frontier Economics, Ltd.
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