The regulation of digital media has been at the forefront in Kenya over the last few years.
Social media has been a heaven-sent platform to make a genuine living but some account owners have been using short cuts to sell or scam customers.
Accounts like Buyer Beware are always warning people to be careful when shopping online and some of us would rather stick to the old ways and shop from physical stores or using verified apps like Glovo and Jumia if need be.
Nancie Mwai is one of the hardworking personalities whose brand has been affected by shady online shop owners.
Liz Lenjo, founder of My IP Legal Studio is representing the top Kenyan influencer and business owner who sought out her services after receiving many complaints from her followers who actually use her images purporting to be selling the items.
“As the legal representatives on record for Ms.Nancie Mwai and her company New Level, we hereby issue a Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware) Notice. There have been several Kenyan fashion houses that are using our Clients’ images to sell their wares online. This has led to confusion as to whether our Client is affiliated or distributing apparel and accessories to these businesses,” partly reads the IG caption from addressing the issue.
The shops received a cease and desist notice for copyright infringement and misrepresentation. So far some of the accounts have responded via Whatsapp and they are not taking the issue seriously. This may be due to the fact that they feel invisible which is not the case.
Scrolling through IG and tempted to Mpesa to reserve goods from a random shop? Be careful. It will take some time for legit measures to be put in place by stakeholders like Mpesa and Facebook to make online shopping more foolproof.
