Internet shop Bol.com has been allowing ‘thousands’ of fake articles to be sold via its platform, the AD reports.

According to anti-counterfeiting network React, which is based in Amsterdam and is chasing up fake products for some 235 brands around the world, sellers are offering fake earphones, iPhone chargers and potentially dangerous batteries. The organisation has filed 20 court cases against businesses selling their wares on bol.com.

Exactly how many fake products have found their way to buyers is not clear. ‘We found plenty of rotten apples’, React spokesman Bjorn Grootswagers told the paper. ‘To say thousands of fake products have been sold on the site is probably on the conservative side. It could very well be more.’

Other sellers said Bol.com is not doing much to discourage dishonest sellers. ‘If you ask them about it they say Don’t worry about it, just sell your stuff’,  one anonymous seller told the AD.

Fake products can be dangerous, warns React. ‘Brand products are tested extensively but fake products such as uncertified batteries are being cobbled together in some factory. They are dangerous and can cause fires,’ Grootswagers said.

Consumer organisation the Consumentenbond has had 200 complaints about bol.com. ‘Most complaints were about products that didn’t work. A small number said they had bought fakes,’ spokesperson Joyce Donat told the paper.

One bol.com customer wrote to say the website misled him into thinking he had bought an original Apple charger: ‘Bol.com makes it appear as if what you’re buying is an Apple product but what you getting is a fake.’ The article in question had been offered on bol.com’s ‘Apple brand page’.

Bol.com has allowed outside sellers to use the platform since 2011. According to spokesperson Marjolein Verkerk complaints from customers are followed up but chances are not every fake product will be detected. ‘With 14,000 sellers and 15 million articles we have opted not to actively check to see if each and every one abides by our rules,’ Verkerk told the AD.