What: Walmart is held responsible by Yeezy of authorizing third parties to sell fake products on its marketplace

Why it is important: For now, there is no obligation in the US for retailers to police what is sold on their marketplace. However, this could be a strong deterrent for both brands and customers, forcing de facto retailers to control their product offering, in order to salvage their reputation and power of attraction.

Yeezy is suing Walmart for selling counterfeit products on its marketplace. However, Walmart is defending itself by mentioning that the products are sold by third-parties on its marketplace, which raises the question of the retailer’s responsibility in terms of responsibility regarding marketplace monitoring.

In 2010, US courts ruled that E-bay did not have the obligation to police counterfeits of Tiffany on its platform. However, since then, the pressure has grown on retailers to set up (voluntarily) programs to confirm the authenticity of products sold in their ecosystems. However, the cost of such programmes can be offsetting, and for now retailers do not have legal obligations to police their products selection. Until when?

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