Cross-border e-commerce platform was fined 59 million US dollars for selling goods illegally!

Recently, the well-known cross-border e-commerce platform eBay announced that it would pay a fine of US$59 million to reach a settlement with the Department of Justice to settle the issue of illegal sale of pharmaceutical equipment.

The FBI's settlement announcement showed that eBay violated the federal Controlled Substances Act ( CSA) by illegally selling thousands of tablet presses and packaging machines on the platform - these devices can produce counterfeit tablets and drugs laced with fentanyl, and skipped the steps of verifying, recording, and saving the identity of buyers, and failed to report to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The FBI also found that many of the eBay users who bought the equipment also ordered counterfeit molds, stamps or dyes that can be used to produce counterfeit brand-name drugs or even to make narcotics, fueling the opioid epidemic in the United States, which many states are battling.

Nikolas Kerest, the U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont, said in a statement that eBay made it easy for anyone to buy dangerous machines used to make counterfeit drugs through its website, and some of the machines were even sold to people who made drugs; the $59 million settlement agreement is an important step in ensuring that e-commerce platforms comply with regulations that protect the public.

eBay denied the DOJ’s allegations and said the settlement was intended to avoid litigation costs, but also promised to take more actions to comply with the CSA — such as strengthening its platform compliance program to regulate the sale of regulated items such as tablet presses, packaging machines and counterfeit molds — as part of the settlement.

eBay also mentioned in the statement that the platform had taken action to remove machines that may be used to make counterfeit drugs from the platform, including molds, tablet presses and packaging machines, before the Department of Justice and other departments made requests, in order to ensure the shopping safety of platform users.

It’s worth noting that many of the people who purchased the aforementioned machines on eBay were later prosecuted for drug-related crimes.

In addition, some time ago, eBay agreed to pay a $3 million criminal fine and reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice because its employees harassed and intimidated buyers .

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Violating Products