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IP rights enforcement activists shocked as the accused was arrested as recently as December 2014 for the same crime, add online sites should have better checks before choosing vendors.Bombarded with complaints of fake cartridges being sold via online shopping sites, Hewlett-Packard India recently took things in its own hands to get a vendor arrested.The DB Marg police on Friday arrested Chetan Dinesh Gada, 25, owner of Jalaram Computech in Lamington Road that is an authorised seller for e-commerce website Snapdeal. They seized fake cartridges and toners worth about Rs 3 lakh. Original ink cartridges and toners cost as much as the cost of a printer itself, and counterfeiting is rampant.Lamington Road, incidentally, is Mumbai’s brick-and-mortar mecca for electronic goods. Regulars swear by their vendors who sell gadgets and parts at rates much lower than the retail price. Besides latest products, these shops are a goldmine of outdated parts like transistors, TV tuners, capacitors, cables and adaptors.But Friday’s incident again throws the spotlight on the growing online shopping market in India, where ecommerce sites are forced to spread their vendor base to cater to the growing demand as they seek to expand rapidly.Recently, an online shopping customer from Puna got delivered stones and soap instead of an iPhone.Recently, Morgan Stanley said it expects India’s e-commerce market (revenues) to grow from $2.9 billion in 2013 to over $100 billion by 2020, making it the fastest growing in the world.According to the police, several customers started complaining about the fake products to HP, which then got in touch with the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, a private agency that helps brands investigate cases of copyright infringement.EIPR traced the products to Gada, who was an authorised seller for Snapdeal. EIPR’s executives placed an order through Snapdeal, choosing Gada’s company as the vendor. When they checked the delivered product, it was fake. EIPR then got in touch with DB Marg police, who raided Gada’s shop.The police recovered 42 HP toners, Canon 17 toners from the shop. The accused has been booked under Sections 51 and 63 of the Copyrights Act.“EIPR approached us with the details of duplicate products of branded companies were sold in the market,” said an official from DB Marg police station.“Ironically, even as the police were making the seizures, a courier boy came to the shop with same fake products returned by a customer,” said Zaheer Khan, chairman, EIPR. “The courier boy Kamlakar Zagade, 23, has been made a witness in the case.”Responding to Mirror’s questions, Snapdeal said it is an online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers. “Snapdeal acts as an intermediary. We are committed to providing customers a platform through which they can purchase genuine products.”The company added it “periodically educates sellers on engaging in fair and safe sales and consequences of selling counterfeits.”At press time, when Mirror did a random search on Snapdeal for an HP 12A black toner cartridge, Jalaram Computech was still listed as one of the vendors, a full 12 hours after Gada’s arrest.Sources said all it takes for someone to register as a seller for an online ecom site is a gumastak licence and a sales tax number. Even Snapdeal in its response to Mirror admitted that it acts on errant sellers only when it is brought to its notice.“In case of any violations, upon being adequately notified, Snapdeal takes down such listings in accordance with the rules and polices,” the spokesperson said. “We also work with various brands to delist any sellers from our platform who have been credibly identified by such brands as selling fake products.”In essence, someone has to bring it to their notice, and that too “adequately” for Snapdeal to act.“It is necessary to have a background check of dealers before empanelling them as authorized dealers,” said an EIPR spokesperson. “In fact, we ourselves helped the police arrest Gada in December 14 for selling fake toners in his shop. This only shows there is a lack of due diligence by online retailers and as a result innocent customers are being taken for a ride.”, 29I bought a pair of palazzo pants from Myntra.com on 40 percent discount. The website claimed that they sell high quality product the pants were of very poor quality. I had paid Rs 1,000. I made a complaint to the shopping website and returned the pants. The company returned the money., 27On January 6, I booked an iPhone 5 charger on Flipkart for Rs 299. They sent me an intimation of confirmation of the order and I got the charger on January 9. The charger looked fine but as soon as I plugged it in, I got a pop up on my cell phone saying it was not an ‘Apple’ accessory and the phone could not be charged. I did not return the product or complain as it was merely a charger but my friends told me these things happen frequently online.