Western Union teams up with IACC to combat counterfeit goods

Wed, Jun 19, 2013: Western Union, a global money transfer company has announced its alliance with the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) to help identify and prevent the sale of counterfeit goods through the IACC Payment Processor Portal Program. Its rival, MoneyGram joined the program in January this year.

IACC Payment Processor Portal Program provides a system for intellectual property rights-holders, such as manufacturers of luxury goods, electronics, and consumer products, to report the illegal sale of counterfeit items. Once a claim is verified by the IACC, a third-party monitoring agent alerts affected payment processors, such as credit card and money transfer companies, to ensure the illegal merchant no longer accepts payments through these channels. As reported, the program has helped IACC members to disable more than 1,400 counterfeit merchants to date and nearly 6,000 websites have been reported through the IACC Portal.