Snapdeal Says Barred 8,000 Sellers in Last 8 Months Over Counterfeit Products

E-commerce company Snapdeal on Tuesday said that it has removed 8,000 sellers from its platform, in the last eight months, for selling counterfeit products.

The company, in a statement, said that its anti-counterfeiting program "Brand Shield", which was launched in November 2018, offers a single point of contact for brands to report suspected counterfeit products being sold on the Snapdeal platform.

"It also offers a fast-track one-day delisting process. In the last eight months, a dedicated team at Snapdeal has reviewed nearly 400 complaints and post verification 8,000 sellers were removed from the platform."

The statement comes against the backdrop of the recent incident where a Congress leader in Rajasthan filed a complaint against Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal over allegedly receiving fake products.

"In multiple recent legal pronouncements, courts have focused on marketplaces needing to establish a fast and efficient takedown process to remove listings. Snapdeal's Brand Shield was conceived and executed to make takedowns easy and process-bound so that unscrupulous sellers are identified and removed at the earliest," the statement said.

The company further said that to ensure speedy redressal, Brand Shield follows a process that allows brands to raise complaints online and eliminates the need for extensive legal documentation.

A Snapdeal spokesperson said: "Snapdeal has zero-tolerance for the fraudulent acts of some rogue sellers. We look forward to furthering these collaborative efforts to isolate such sellers and blocking their future access to online platforms."