Following a joint operation with the Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific, which was designed to identify merchants specialising in the sale of illegal counterfeit DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, PayPal permanently closed the accounts of dozens of merchants making unauthorized use of the global payment platform.

The operation took place over a three-month period and involved the close cooperation of investigators from the MPA Asia Pacific and PayPal’s Brand Risk Management department. The investigation uncovered that the majority of these merchants are based in mainland China, and that they market and ship their products directly to retail and wholesale customers worldwide.

“Our action today sends a strong message to all criminals that PayPal does not tolerate such illegal activity on our global payment platform and we work closely with industry organizations, like the MPA, who alerted us to these intellectual property right violations,” said Julie Bainbridge, PayPal’s head of Global Brand Risk Management."

"This operation also sends a reassuring signal to our users that their PayPal purchases are more trustworthy and secure. While the vast majority of business conducted on our platform is legitimate, we will investigate any and all reported violations of our acceptable use policy.”

PayPal says its Brand Risk Management team regularly works with merchants to improve their compliance controls “to actively detect and take down violations as part of a robust anti- counterfeit program which also includes a policy and process for rights owners to submit infringement claims.”

There has been no confirmation whether any legal action will be pursued by either the MPA or PayPal.

Story filed 24.06.11