OECD Launches Report on eCommerce in Illicit Trade

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.

It has published a series of reports into illicit trade, the most recent of which is ‘eCommerce Challenges in Illicit Trade in Fakes’ ¹. The report is the first outcome of a special project on illicit trade between the Anti-Illicit Trade Expert Group (AITEG) and the public-private partnership (PPP), established under the OECD Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade (TF-CIT).

The foreword to the report makes the point that trade in counterfeit goods is a longstanding – and growing – worldwide socio-economic risk that threatens effective public governance, efficient business, and the well-being of consumers.

One of the areas that has garnered increased attention in recent years has been the use by counterfeiters and other illicit traders of eCommerce to cloak their activities. Trading platforms such as Amazon and eBay have been instrumental in promoting growth in eCommerce, but they can also be abused by illicit trade networks.

The pandemic has exacerbated these problems, as people turned to eCommerce during lockdowns and shop closures. Governments and industries have recognised these problems and are addressing them by providing more transparency, streamlining procedures, and facilitating co-operation among eCommerce platforms, rights holders and governments.

The foreword goes on to state that the study provides an overview of these government and industry-specific measures to address the abuse of online platforms by counterfeiters. Given the global and borderless nature of eCommerce, such information is crucially needed, not only to better understand this threat and different approaches to tackling it, but also for co- ordinating effective governance responses.

The US Council for International Business’ Anti-Illicit Trade Committee (AITC) Chair David Luna, remarked that ‘on behalf of Business at OECD, we are especially proud to have actively participated in the work leading up to this final report through sharing information and market data insights, best practices, and other industry perspectives to shed greater light on the booming trade of counterfeits across global supply chains and online marketplaces.’ 

According to Luna, the report is timely given the breadth and scale of nefarious actors’ and criminal networks’ exploitation of the openness of the internet and anonymity of transactions on eCommerce to distribute and trade in counterfeit and pirated goods across the digital world.

Further, the pandemic has accelerated illicit trade but especially across online platforms including fraudulent COVID-19 related products.

1 - www.oecd.org/publications/eCommerce-challenges-in-illicit-trade-in-fakes-40522de9-en.htm