Welcome Walmart Shoppers - Walmart Now Sells Fakes

Walmart slides into the abyss of counterfeit sellers.

November 30, 2017, Los Angeles, CA – Consumers have confidence and expect honest services, authentic and safe products when they shop at their local grocery, drugstore or retailer. That confidence is misplaced for Walmart shoppers. Consumers may find they have received a counterfeit product from Walmart as a direct seller, or from third-party sellers that Walmart allows to list just about anything on its website. The counterfeit products appear right alongside authentic items conveying Walmart's endorsement and the illusion they are from Walmart.

Consumers are being deceived into spending good money for bad products as a result of Walmart's push to capture a portion of the exploding e-commerce marketplace. Walmart has exposed itself and consumers to the same deceptive and dishonest dealings flooding Amazon and eBay. These e-commerce websites are being exploited to enable and facilitate the sale of an inexhaustible supply of counterfeit products, mostly from China.

The Counterfeit Report, a consumer advocate and industry watchdog, found hundreds of counterfeit products on Walmart's website, purchased some, and submitted dozens of infringement complaints authorized by the trademark holders to remove the counterfeit items. Some items were removed, others still remain months later. Emails sent to Walmart's legal department were acknowledged, but went unanswered.

For example;

• In simple terms, there is no authentic 64GB microSDHC® computer memory product in the microSDHC standard, or any licensed manufacturer's authentic product line. The microSDHC® and microSD® trademarks are owned by SD-3C, LLC, who licenses its registered trademarks to authentic, conforming micro SD products. The fake microSDHC cards shown below were purchased from Walmart as a direct retailer.
• Vans, the popular footwear and apparel company, does not make or license the use of the Vans® trademark on iPhone 6 or 7 phone cases. The fake items shown are offered by third-party sellers on Walmart's website.
• Composite Resources, Combat Application Tourniquet® (C-A-T®), has been supplied to the U.S. Military, police, first responders and the public worldwide for the past decade. Counterfeit versions of the C-A-T tourniquet have catastrophically failed during actual life-saving applications. The fakes can be found on Walmart.
• Duracell confirmed the Duracell® battery with an easily peeled off label, and purchased from a Walmart third-party seller, is a fake.

Could you identify the fake microSD^® and microSDHC^® memory cards below offered on Walmart.com? If you can't, you just bought a fake that may damage your equipment or destroy data. None of the items below exist in the Secure Digital (SD) standard, or any licensed manufacturer's authentic product line. Despite repeated complaints, they are all still sold on Walmart.

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 only a small part of the problem: the value of counterfeit and pirated goods is forecast to grow to $2.8 trillion and cost 5.4 million net job losses¹ by 2022, while manufacturer's brand integrity is tarnished or destroyed.

Consumers who purchase counterfeits online receive little if any value in return, yet are supporting terrorists and other criminals while destroying U.S. jobs.

View the Walmart fakes here.

Footnote:
¹ THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF COUNTERFEITING AND PIRACY
The report was prepared for The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC BASCAP) and The International Trademark Association (INTA)
January 2017
Frontier Economics, Ltd.