#Brand Protection #Minato #EC Market

Minato's Reselling Countermeasure Service: A Milestone Achieved

In recent years, the e-commerce market has been experiencing rapid growth, yet this expansion has been accompanied by a surge in malicious reselling activities. In this context, Minato Inc., based in Tokyo's Minato Ward, has recently achieved a significant milestone with its Minato Reselling Countermeasure service, which has surpassed 150,000 implementations. This achievement highlights not only the pressing need for effective countermeasures but also the service’s vital role in protecting brand value and enhancing customer safety.

Understanding the Malicious Reselling Issue

The substantial growth of the e-commerce market is reflected in the recent findings by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which reported that Japan's domestic BtoC e-commerce market reached nearly 24.8 trillion yen in 2022, marking a year-on-year growth of 9.23%. However, with this growth, incidents of malicious reselling have also increased, raising significant concerns among legitimate retailers and their customers.

Notable issues include:

• - Products arriving damaged or in unsatisfactory condition
• - Items arriving close to or past their expiration dates
• - Inability to purchase popular items due to resellers hoarding stock
• - Difficulty in reaching resellers for returns or refunds

Major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Rakuten, Yahoo! Shopping, and Qoo10 are responding to this situation by enhancing their policies. For instance, in April 2024, LINE Yahoo announced revisions to its Store Operation Guidelines aimed at addressing the issue of