e-commerce platform IndiaMART accused of selling ‘counterfeit goods’

The US Trade Representative (USTR) has accused Indian multi-billion dollar e-commerce platform, IndiaMART of selling ‘counterfeit goods’ on its platform.

IndiaMART is a publicly listed e-commerce website and mobile app that connects buyers with suppliers and describes itself as the world's second largest online business-to-business market.

The US Trade Representative on Thursday came out with a report ‘2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy’ in which it identified 42 online and 35 physical markets around the world that offer counterfeiting products or copyright piracy.

The report called out four offline Indian markets too -- Heera Panna in Mumbai, Kidderpore in Kolkata, Tank Road in Delhi and Palika Bazaar in Delhi. The report stated that duplicate goods can allegedly be found in large volumes on IndiaMART, including counterfeit pharmaceuticals, electronics, and apparel.

However, this is not the first time for the company to be called out, as in the past India’s drug regulator has issued notices to e-commerce companies like Amazon, Flipkart and IndiaMART for selling counterfeit products.

Apparently, IndiaMART has a notice-and-takedown system, but users say that it is burdensome to use and the process to remove the product is slow, as per the USTR report. “The status of notices is not transparently communicated to right holders,” said the report.

In the past few quarters, IndiaMART’s stock has also disappointed investors by not giving any returns in the last one year as the stock slumped 44%.

In the latest October to December quarter, the company reported a 12% year-on-year decline in its net profit at ₹702 crore.