Said to be the first such cooperation in the local e-commerce industry, several top online marketplaces in Malaysia have announced their commitment to combat counterfeit software. This is done in cooperation with Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-Operatives, and Consumerism (MDTCC) as well as Microsoft.
Among online marketplaces that are involved in this initiative include Lazada, 11Street, Lelong.my, Mudah.my, and LogOn. In general, among steps that these marketplaces will take in order to eradicate counterfeit software is strengthening their internal monitoring. As an example, Lazada Malaysia’s CEO, Hans-Peter Ressel stated during a media event yesterday that the company has more than 100 people consistently monitoring its platform to make sure that counterfeit products including software can be identified and removed from its listing.
In addition to that, Lazada Malaysia has other measures in place as well including automated filter, manual auditing and penalty on merchants that sold counterfeit products. Hans-Peter also stated that these efforts not only involved merchants and marketplace listing but also within product return process and customer careline.
At the same event, 11street’s GM of Merchandising, Henry Ho has revealed that the company also has its own internal risk management team that are constantly looking through its platform in order to find and remove counterfeit products. As part of its commitment to the new initiative, 11street has planned to intensify its monitoring system to better protect customers from such products.
Regardless of physical stores or online marketplace, the behavior of counterfeit software remains generally the same according to Microsoft Malaysia’s GM of Consumer Group, Bruce Howe. This is due to the fact that a lot of counterfeit cases would lead unfortunate customer to malware infection that exposes them to other issues including but not limited to system damages and identity theft that could be costly to fix.
Hence, Microsoft believes that educating consumers is an important part of this initiative as well. This is why Microsoft Malaysia has recently launched an online campaign to support its existing anti-piracy website that helps inform users on how to identify genuine Microsoft products alongside the benefits of staying legit.
As for MDTCC, the vast world of cyberspace is exactly why this new cooperation is important to the agency according to its Deputy Director of Enforcement, Tuan Othman Nawang. Even though the ministry has a dedicated team that monitors all online platforms in addition to existing cooperation with Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission as well as Royal Malaysia Police, he added that the ecosystem need to be equally committed to the cause as well.
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