Mercado Libre published its first Transparency Report
On 19 May 2021, Mercado Libre (MELI) published its first Transparency Report. MELI stated that the report’s purpose is “to make our policies and actions transparent to safeguard the security and privacy of over 74 million users in our entire regional ecosystem”.
The Transparency Report consists of three main sections: product security and quality, protection of IP rights, and privacy matters. Read below some highlights of the report!
Section: Product security and quality
This section contains stats about removed content due to violations of MELI’s Terms and Conditions (T&C), which inter alia, prohibit certain items are sold on the platform (e.g., medicines, counterfeit items and other goods violating IP rights):
- 331,607,978 listings were placed on the 18 MELI's websites as of 31 December 2020.
- 18,570,436 listings were detected and moderated by MELI due to violation of its Listing and Prohibited Items Policies.
- 112,424 listings were reported by users.
- 65,180 listings were removed due to COVID-19 related matters.
- Top 10 product categories regarding removed listings due to violation of MELI’s Listing and Prohibited Items Policies:
Product
Category |
Removed
Listings |
Courses |
7,036,318 |
Medicine, health and/or beauty substances and products |
1,386,243 |
E-books |
1,337,862 |
Digital
accounts & contents |
1,278,420 |
Adult products |
844,061 |
Personal
databases |
611,122 |
Decoders,
antennas & signals |
433,865 |
Personal
documents |
230,757 |
Tobacco &
alike |
215,817 |
Products &
financial services |
126,428 |
- Top jurisdictions concerning detected listings due to violation of MELI’s Listing and Prohibited Items Policies:
Jurisdictions |
Detected Listings |
Brazil |
13,283,854 |
Mexico |
2,282,461 |
Colombia |
1,371,060 |
Argentina |
792,168 |
Chile |
609,413 |
Uruguay |
98,915 |
Peru |
96,569 |
Rest of Latin
America |
35,996 |
- In the report is highlighted that MELI uses machine learning technologies to detect infringing listings. In this sense, only 3.12% of the detected listings went back to the platform (reactivated ads).
Section: Protection of IP rights
This section contains stats regarding MELI’s Brand Protection Program (BPP), which “enable IPR holders to report infringing listings [via a Notice & Take Down -N&TD- procedure] in any of the 18 countries where Mercado Libre operates”.
- 2,107,264 N&TDs were submitted.
- 104,661 counter-notices were submitted.
- The number of confirmed and not confirmed N&TDs:
Date |
Confirmed
N&TD |
Not confirmed
N&TD |
2020-7 |
580,164 |
57,589 |
2020-8 |
396,225 |
46,558 |
2020-9 |
285,462 |
48,326 |
2020-10 |
333,046 |
26,757 |
2020-11 |
198,232 |
24,184 |
2020-12 |
92,568 |
23,035 |
Read here the interview IPTango held with Juan Cichero (Head of Brand Protection at MELI). Juan conversed about BPP, including the machine learning technologies used to detect infringing listings and the N&TD procedure.
Credit: Image is courtesy of Mercado Libre.