Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to help prevent the sale of counterfeit goods online.

The Government is committed to protecting intellectual property rights, safeguarding businesses and consumers from those who profit from infringement, in line with the UK’s Intellectual Property Counter Infringement Strategy.

The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) leads action against serious and organised IP crime online, including disrupting websites selling counterfeit goods.

The Intellectual Property Office also regularly meets many of the major social media and e-commerce trading platforms in the UK and overseas to help ensure they have policies in place to remove goods identified as counterfeit, advertisements of counterfeit goods, and persistent sellers of counterfeit goods.