Nike strikes to curb sneaker-buying bots and resale market with penalties

Nike is taking steps to curb the proliferation of sneaker-buying bots and resellers.

The sneaker firm added new phrases for U.S. on-line gross sales this month to forestall resellers from buying its merchandise and reselling them on the secondary market utilizing automated expertise or software program. The Wall Road Journal first reported the modifications Tuesday.

Earlier variations of Nike’s phrases already prohibited shopping for merchandise for resale. However the brand new guidelines permit the corporate to cancel orders positioned with bots. Nike additionally added that it could decline refunds, cost restocking charges and droop the accounts of customers it suspects of reselling.

The corporate additionally mentioned it may reject orders if an account has an extreme quantity of returns or exceeds product buy limits.

Nike didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Wednesday.

Earlier this yr, Nike took authorized motion towards on-line resale market StockX for allegedly permitting gross sales of counterfeit variations of its sneakers. Nike mentioned in Could that it purchased 4 pairs of counterfeit footwear from StockX, regardless of that firm’s declare it authenticates the sneakers bought on its website. 

In late September, Nike’s shares fell greater than 10% after the corporate mentioned it was taking aggressive steps to decrease its overstocked stock.