Following the presidential memorandum of 3 April 2019, the Department of Homeland Security published on 24 January 2020 its report on combating trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods in e-commerce. The diagnosis is blunt: freed from research, development and quality costs, counterfeiters undercut legitimate industry while endangering consumers — medicines, cosmetics containing arsenic or mercury, phone chargers that catch fire, toys laden with deadly metals, defective vehicle parts — and their profits feed organised crime. E-commerce amplifies the problem: minimal seller vetting, deceptive advertising on social media, small-parcel air shipments, third-party stocks in marketplace warehouses. The DHS lists eleven immediate government actions and ten 'highly prioritised' best practices for platforms: tougher seller verification, exclusion of repeat offenders, consumer awareness, clearer indication of origin. The report stresses that platform accountability remains contested terrain and calls for legislative modernisation.