Such is the continuing high demand for Apple products in many regions, it is no surprise that counterfeits of the Cupertino firm’s offerings remain easy to find online. However, the popular online marketplace Mercado Libre – a popular shopping destination for Latin Americans – reportedly intends to crack down on the sales of such fake items through its platform.
9to5Mac has reportedly seen an email from Mercado Libre, stating that it will adopt such measures in cases where “Apple confirms a report of counterfeit products”, which indicates that the two firms may be working together to prevent such knockoffs from being sold.
The new measures by the online marketplace – which is also known as Mercado Livre in Brazil – will apparently include taking down all of a given seller’s listings of Apple products if one of them is identified as counterfeit. The wrongdoing seller will also be banned from using Mercado Libre to sell any other Apple products in the future.
The company has requested that sellers check their listings to prevent themselves from being hit with restrictions once the new measures are introduced from February 22.
With Apple having had an official partnership with Mercado Libre since 2019 – using the site to sell its original products to Latin American buyers – one can easily imagine that this latest announcement may have indeed arisen from close communication between the two parties. It remains to be seen whether the Cupertino company will take similar actions with its partners in other parts of the world.