Facilitated by INTERPOL, a joint investigation between Europol’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (IPC³), the U.S. National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center and law enforcement authorities from 27 EU Member States and third parties, have seized more than 20.520 domain names that were offering counterfeit goods.
They include those that sell luxury products, electronics, sportswear, pharmaceuticals and online piracy on e-commerce platforms and social networks.
The operation that was called "In Our Sites" or IOS, was first implemented in 2014.
Previous edition seized a total of 7776 websites. The 2017's operation, which is IOS VIII, sees a remarkable increase at its global operation.
This is made possible by the approach which Europol aims in making the internet a safer place for consumers, by getting more countries and private-sector partners to participate in this operation and provide referrals.
According to Rob Wainwright, Executive Director of Europol:
Fighting counterfeits and piracy has become a worldwide challenge. With their ability to remain anonymous, they were able to operate thousands of web domains, which brought big challenges for both the private sector and law enforcement to take them down, and see who are the people behind them.
Furthermore, it has also become increasingly easy for people to fall for scams and become a victims of counterfeiting.
