2011-06-22 10:00 
Dozens of Violating
Accounts Immediately Shutdown Following Operation
SINGAPORE, June 22, 2011
/PRNewswire-Asia/ -- On June 22, 2011, PayPal permanently closed
the accounts of dozens of merchants making unauthorized use of
PayPal's global payment platform to conduct financial transactions
that violate the company's acceptable use policy. The action
followed a joint operation with the Motion Picture Association
(MPA) Asia Pacific, which was designed to identify merchants
specializing in the sale of illegal counterfeit DVDs and Blu-ray
Discs.
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."
"We are very pleased that this joint
operation has resulted in the immediate shutdown of dozens of
accounts belonging to copyright infringers, many of whom have been
exploiting legitimate platforms for years to sell counterfeit
material worldwide," said Mike Ellis, President and Managing
Director, MPA Asia Pacific. "We also commend PayPal for
taking decisive action against these illegal activities on its
global payment platform. Through this operation, PayPal has once
again shown itself to be a consistent and reliable partner in the
fight against copyright theft."
PayPal prohibits the sale of
items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of
publicity or privacy or any other proprietary rights under the laws
of any jurisdiction as part of its acceptable use
policy. PayPal's acceptable use policy is found
at https://cms.paypal.com/AUP.
PayPal's 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.
Rights owners are provided with an email address or PDF form to
report their findings. They can access this information on the live
site throughhttps://cms.paypal.com/InfringementReport.
Outside of the infringement
report process, any PayPal user who has a concern about counterfeit
goods being sold is encouraged to report their findings
to [email protected].
The information is reviewed internally by PayPal's operations team
within 24 hours of being reported.
About the MPA
The Motion Picture Association (MPA)
and Motion Picture Association International (MPA-I) represent the
interests of major motion picture companies in the global
marketplace. To do so, it promotes and protects its member
companies' intellectual property rights and conducts public
awareness programs to highlight to movie fans around the world the
importance of content protection. These activities have helped to
transform entire markets benefiting film industries in each country
including foreign and local filmmakers alike.
The organizations' worldwide
operations are directed from its headquarters in Los Angeles,
California and overseen in the Asia Pacific by a team based in
Singapore. Its member companies include: Paramount Pictures
Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century
Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLLP; Walt Disney
Studios Motion Pictures; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. For
more information about the MPA, please visit www.mpa-i.org.
About
PayPal
PayPal is the faster, safer way to
pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send
payments without sharing financial information, with the
flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts
(where available), debit cards and credit cards in various markets.
PayPal is an eBay company and enables global e-commerce with more
than 94 million active accounts in 190 markets and 25 currencies
around the world. The company's open payment platform, PayPal X,
allows developers to build innovative payment applications on
multiple platforms and devices. More information about the company
can be found athttp://www.paypal.com.sg.
PayPal is headquartered in San Jose,
California and its international headquarters is located in
Singapore.
For more information,
contact:
Dickson Seow
PayPal Asia Pacific
Tel: +65-6510-6463
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE PayPal