Surfwear brand Billabong has collaborated with online brand protection specialist NetNames to remove counterfeit products from online marketplaces.

Billabong has collaborated with online brand protection specialist NetNames to remove counterfeit products from online marketplaces.

Since May 2015 NetNames has removed more than 2 million counterfeit and lookalike products from online marketplaces, social media pages and unauthorised websites.

Billabong’s international IP manager Lesley Skipp said: “It is of paramount importance that we have a strategy to protect our customers from disappointing quality and potential dangers of online counterfeits.”

NetNames monitors online brand activity for its retail partners, locating and removing counterfeit offers directly from websites.

The brand protection company has relationships with international online marketplaces to ensure illegally branded products are removed as quickly as possible to reduce the loss of sales and brand integrity for retail partners.

Its Asia Pacific general manager Tyron Ball said: “NetNames’ dedicated in-house Chinese analyst team provides NetNames with access into highly infringed Chinese and Asia marketplace sites.”