Czech shops get thousands of complaints about fake copies of their own sites. Weeks after they report the fakes, nothing has happened.

Criminals copy a known Czech shop's site and take people's money, and the real shop then fields thousands of refund demands.ceska-justice.czCzech retail association — copied shops field thousands of complaints (another site)The retail and tourism association's account of a wave of cloned Czech shops: Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were copied, the copied shops logged thousands of customer complaints demanding refunds or goods, and the reports they filed with the trade inspectors, Facebook, the domain operators and the police had…Complaint · Its reports to the platforms, the inspectors and the police went weeks without a result.ceska-justice.czCzech retail association — copied shops field thousands of complaints (another site)The retail and tourism association's account of a wave of cloned Czech shops: Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were copied, the copied shops logged thousands of customer complaints demanding refunds or goods, and the reports they filed with the trade inspectors, Facebook, the domain operators and the police had…Complaint ·

Good for Someone who can build web crawlers and is comfortable dealing with lawyers and marketplaces.

Category
Legal
Entry
Moderate
Verified

The opportunity

2/2 · Clear, recurring pain

Criminals build near-perfect copies of well-known Czech shops' websites, and the copied shop is left with thousands of complaints.ceska-justice.czCzech retail association — copied shops field thousands of complaints (another site)The retail and tourism association's account of a wave of cloned Czech shops: Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were copied, the copied shops logged thousands of customer complaints demanding refunds or goods, and the reports they filed with the trade inspectors, Facebook, the domain operators and the police had…Complaint ·

  • Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were all copied in one 2025 wave.ceska-justice.czCzech retail association — copied shops field thousands of complaints (another site)The retail and tourism association's account of a wave of cloned Czech shops: Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were copied, the copied shops logged thousands of customer complaints demanding refunds or goods, and the reports they filed with the trade inspectors, Facebook, the domain operators and the police had…Complaint ·
  • 7,500 fake Czech shops were counted over a single Christmas.e15.czČTK — fake e-shop fraud in Czechia up 1,190% (another site)An antivirus company's figures: fraud with fake internet shops in Czechia rose 1,190% year on year in the first quarter of 2025, 7,500 fake Czech shops were counted over the Christmas period, and most had since been taken down or moved to a new address.News ·
  • Several copies of a known retailer can appear and vanish in a day.MPOmpo.gov.czCzech trade ministry — links to fraudulent shops copying well-known retailers (another site)The trade ministry's public warning that posts on social networks show well-known Czech shops offering goods at extreme discounts, that the order and payment go through but the goods will almost certainly never arrive, and that several imitations of a well-known retailer can appear and disappear in a single day.News ·

Suggested solution

Build software that watches marketplaces, adverts and new web addresses for copies of a Czech shop's name and pages, collects the proof and files each removal request itself, as 5 companies already do in 4 other countries.

  1. The shop's support desk. Today: Learns of the copy from complaining customers. With the suggested solution: Gets an alert the moment a copy appears.
  2. The shop's staff. Today: Collects proof of the copied pages. With the suggested solution: An evidence pack is built for each platform.
  3. The shop's staff. Today: Reports the copy to the platform and the domain operator. With the suggested solution: The same report goes to every channel at once.
  4. A lawyer. Today: Sends a warning letter before any court step. With the suggested solution: Unchanged — the letter stays legal work.
  5. The shop's staff. Today: Waits weeks while the copy stays up. With the suggested solution: Sees every request and its answer in one list.
  6. Who does this is not known. Today: Whether anyone re-checks after a removal is not known. With the suggested solution: The name is watched for the copy coming back.

Not known: whether anyone re-checks after a removal.

Why now

0/3 · No deadline

Copies of known Czech shops keep coming back under new addresses, and the shops that field the complaints cannot stop them any faster.2 sourcese15.czČTK — fake e-shop fraud in Czechia up 1,190% (another site)An antivirus company's figures: fraud with fake internet shops in Czechia rose 1,190% year on year in the first quarter of 2025, 7,500 fake Czech shops were counted over the Christmas period, and most had…News · ceska-justice.czCzech retail association — copied shops field thousands of complaints (another site)The retail and tourism association's account of a wave of cloned Czech shops: Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were copied, the copied shops logged thousands of customer complaints demanding refunds or…Complaint ·

  • The copied shop's support desk absorbs thousands of refund demands.ceska-justice.czCzech retail association — copied shops field thousands of complaints (another site)The retail and tourism association's account of a wave of cloned Czech shops: Sportisimo, Tescoma and Super zoo were copied, the copied shops logged thousands of customer complaints demanding refunds or goods, and the reports they filed with the trade inspectors, Facebook, the domain operators and the police had…Complaint ·
  • A copy taken down moves to a new address and starts again.e15.czČTK — fake e-shop fraud in Czechia up 1,190% (another site)An antivirus company's figures: fraud with fake internet shops in Czechia rose 1,190% year on year in the first quarter of 2025, 7,500 fake Czech shops were counted over the Christmas period, and most had since been taken down or moved to a new address.News ·
  • Seven Czech shops and carriers had to club together against this in 2025.zboziaprodej.czSeven Czech shops and carriers join a campaign against brand impersonation (another site)Notino, Alza.cz, Rohlik.cz, Packeta, Astratex, Pilulka and Super Zoo joined an initiative under the Czech e-commerce association against fraudsters who set up copies of known shops on Facebook and TikTok to extract logins and payments for goods that do not exist.Complaint ·

Willing to pay

1/2 · Some signs

Czech shops pay lawyers and the arbitration court case by case, and no Czech seller prices the watching and the removing.Market checkgoogle.comCzech check — who sells the watching and the removing here (another site)Czech-language web search, the state business register, our own funding ledger and the register's own records: no Czech firm sells detection through to takedown for a copied shop. What is sold here is trademark-register watching, a global inspection group's supply-chain service, an association acting for film rights…Market check ·

  • Czech law firms bill this work case by case.arws.czA Czech law firm's guide to fighting copycat shops (another site)A Prague firm's 2026 guide for brand owners: a warning letter must go out at least seven days before a lawsuit, platforms must act on a substantiated notice without undue delay, a Czech domain dispute runs two to four months, a court must decide a preliminary injunction within seven days, and the trade inspectors can…News ·
  • What carries a published Czech price is the legal step, not the watching.Market checkgoogle.comCzech check — who sells the watching and the removing here (another site)Czech-language web search, the state business register, our own funding ledger and the register's own records: no Czech firm sells detection through to takedown for a copied shop. What is sold here is trademark-register watching, a global inspection group's supply-chain service, an association acting for film rights…Market check ·
  • No Czech vendor publishes a price for finding and removing one copy.Market checkgoogle.comCzech check — who sells the watching and the removing here (another site)Czech-language web search, the state business register, our own funding ledger and the register's own records: no Czech firm sells detection through to takedown for a copied shop. What is sold here is trademark-register watching, a global inspection group's supply-chain service, an association acting for film rights…Market check ·

Per case

Validated abroad

3/3 · Proven in 2+ markets

Brands in Germany, Spain, Lithuania and the United States already buy software that finds the copies and files the removals.2 sourcesTech.eutech.euEnforceShield (another site)A Vilnius company that finds counterfeit listings, cloned storefronts and phishing pages for a brand and runs the takedowns itself, with lawyers reviewing outcomes rather than processing routine cases.In the source’s words“EnforceShield currently serves more than 20 enterprise customers and says its platform removes an average of more than 33,500 IP violations per…”Company abroad · presseportal.deSentryc (another site)A Berlin company selling software that detects product piracy and brand abuse on online marketplaces for its customers, funded at Series A.Company abroad ·

Where it works: ES, DE, US, LT — home market CZESDELTCZUS
  1. Red Points (another site)Based in Spain
  2. Sentryc (another site)Based in Germany
  3. Smart Protection (another site)Based in Spain
  4. MarqVision (another site)Based in United States
  5. EnforceShield (another site)Based in Lithuania

Market gap

1/2 · Early rivals only

No Czech firm sells this work; what is sold here is register watching, inspection services, film-industry enforcement and lawyers by the case.Market checkgoogle.comCzech check — who sells the watching and the removing here (another site)Czech-language web search, the state business register, our own funding ledger and the register's own records: no Czech firm sells detection through to takedown for a copied shop. What is sold here is trademark-register watching, a global inspection group's supply-chain service, an association acting for film rights…Market check ·

New, selling this: BRANDPOL. Established, selling this: nobody on file. New, selling something nearby: SGS Czech Republic, s.r.o. (since 1993), Patentoid s.r.o. (since 2016), ARROWS advokátní kancelář, s.r.o. (since 2018), Česká protipirátská unie. Established, selling something nearby: Hlídač ochranných známek (since 1992). No established player sells this here.

The space is still open

Execution difficulty

2/3 · Moderate

Makes it easier

  • No licence is needed to sell this.
  • The platforms and the domain registry take removal requests from anyone.
  • No Czech firm sells this work.

Makes it harder

  • The buyers are mid-size and large retailers.
  • Each platform wants its own evidence.
  • A copy taken down comes back under a new address.

Suggested first moves

  1. Build a daily watcher for new web addresses and marketplace listings using one Czech shop's brand name, and show it to that shop free.
  2. Call the person who answers customer complaints at a mid-size Czech shop and ask what a copied site costs them in a week.
  3. Offer a Czech law firm that already sells copycat work a partnership.