Cyber Monday 2011: Feds crack down on counterfeit deals
Edgar Hernandez purchases a Television during ‘Black Friday’ at a Best Buy store on November 25, 2011 San Diego, California. Thousands of consumers are queuing at various stores across the nation to take advantage of ‘Black Friday’ deals as the holiday shopping season begins in America.
As shoppers washed down their Thanksgiving leftovers with some Cyber Monday shopping, big sales aren’t the only thing making news.
Federal authorities shut down 150 websites on Monday, by seizing their domain names, after they were accused of selling counterfeit or pirated merchandise, the Associated Press reported. The investigation was led by officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcements and the FBI.
Read more at GlobalPost: Shoppers seek online deals on Cyber Monday 2011
The seized sites, which mainly sold professional sports jerseys, golf equipment and DVD sets, will now display a banner that notifies consumers of federal action and informs them that copyright infringement is a federal crime, the AP reported.
But many think Cyber Monday won't only be a fed bust. Major retailers took advantage of the post Black Friday shopping day, with eight out of 10 online retailers offering special promotions, CNN reported.
Even though Black Friday brought was a record breaking online shopping day, with about $816 million spent online, retailers are hoping Cyber Monday will rake in even more sales, The New York Times reported. This year’s Black Friday spending was up 26 percent more than last year.
Read more at GlobalPost: Black Friday sales set record
Online retailers will not only offer discounts; almost a third will offer free shipping and 38 percent will run limited-time flash sales, The Times reported. Once a made-up shopping day, Cyber Monday has become an official shopping day for the holiday season. Last year’s Cyber Monday surpassed Black Friday as the biggest shopping day of the year, topping $1 billion in sales for the first time, the Guardian reported. Market analysts expect sales to rise 20 percent, or to $1.2 billion this year, the Guardian reported.