Fakes undermine a positive cause
KeepCup founders, brother and sister Abigail and Jamie Forsyth, owned cafes in Melbourne for over twenty years. As their business grew, the amount of packaging waste they and their customers were creating began to bother them. In response, they developed the first barista-standard reusable cup as an alternative to disposable paper cups. Since then, their commitment to sustainability has won them a loyal following around the world, with distribution spreading to Europe, North America, and China.
Everything the company stands for is rooted in sustainable practices like local manufacture with environmentally friendly and non-toxic materials. So when counterfeiters started to create fake KeepCups, the damage was twofold. Not only were they taking money from the pockets of an authentic business, but they were also working against the environmentally conscious mission of KeepCup. This final straw pushed the brand to seek a comprehensive solution to its counterfeiting woes.
A global, scalable platform
At first, KeepCup tried to address individual cases one by one, fielding infringements to a legal team. However, the team soon saw this approach as costly and time-consuming. They also had no way of knowing how many fakes were out there, damaging their reputation, nor exactly where they were.
Considering the time and financial cost, KeepCup wasn’t interested in taking legal action against counterfeiters, they just wanted to see the offending products taken down. Red Points’ scalable, global platform caught the company’s attention. Now, automated tasks and new rules created by machine-learning technology take care of a majority of cases, meaning the team only has to deal with infringements that really require their involvement. This has freed up the team’s time, allowing them to focus on what matters to the KeepCup team-growing their eco-friendly brand organically.
