Europol Seizes Over 20,000 Domain Names for Selling Counterfeits

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Over 20,000 Internet domains names have been seized for selling counterfeit goods during a joint operation by the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, the US National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre and EU law enforcement agencies, the press service of the Europol said in a statement on Monday.

"Joint investigations by Europol’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition (IPC3), the US National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre and law enforcement authorities from 27 EU Member States and third parties, facilitated by INTERPOL, have seized over 20 520 domain names that were offering counterfeit goods, for example luxury products, sportswear, electronics, pharmaceuticals and online piracy on e-commerce platforms and social networks," the statement read.

According to the Europol, the operation dubbed In Our Sites was launched in 2014. This year's results showed remarkable progress, since only 7,776 websites have been blocked in the previous editions of the operation, the statement said. Involvement of numerous anti-counterfeiting associations and brand owners contributed to the results as well.