The world cheered and marveled at the rapid achievement with release of COVID vaccines. Always opportunists the counterfeiters were close behind profiting in a pandemic.

Brands and associations have welcomed the new legislative initiatives materializing as pending laws currently in the U.S. Congress. The first to proceed to hearings is the INFORM which looks to address high-volume third party sellers and provide some transparency. But opposition has formed on the formation of the Coalition to Protect America’s Small Sellers (PASS) which was launched by eBay, Etsy, Mercari, OfferUp and Poshmark. PASS claims some of the bill’s disclosure requirements give rise to privacy and security concerns. We shall see how this plays out.

With sunny days ahead, many consumers will be shopping for a new pair of sunglasses. This interesting article brings the character of one bad actor trafficking in counterfeit glasses into a disturbing light. Seems the product category really doesn’t matter: it’s all about harassment for this criminal.

 This heated legal battle between Chanel and TheRealReal, the latter of who promotes having “authenticators” on staff, was continued until this month to allow for private mediation. Did the needle move on the resale industry conflict?

As the world turns the corner on the pandemic, one thing is for sure: people are anxious to travel. Summer is the season, and as countries and travel carriers start to figure out what is going to be required, counterfeiters and fraudsters are hard at work. The latest – counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards…

If counterfeit goods are incorrectly perceived as a victimless crime so is the plight caused by counterfeit coupons, but it doesn’t take long to add up the loss to businesses that are victimized when these counterfeit coupons are redeemed. When a brand decides to issue coupons, it is a discount now for more business later proposition. These transactions tend to be carefully monitored to ensure the formula is working.

Sentencing is scheduled this month for a husband and wife team who ran a scam for three years designing and distributing fake coupons to the tune of 13 million in losses to retailers and manufacturers.