Meta and Shopify urged to act as scale of ‘ghost stores’ preying on Australian online shoppers revealed

Exclusive: Consumer advocates call for crackdown on ‘fraudulent players’ as Guardian Australia finds scores of sites masquerading as local businesses

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There have been more than 140 “ghost” stores operating online in Australia falsely marketing themselves as local brands and selling everything from poor quality clothing to counterfeit sports labels – or nothing at all.

Affected customers have told Guardian Australia that if the products they bought from these sites actually arrived, they were of “rubbish” quality and it was nearly impossible to organise a refund.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is investigating after a surge of complaints about ghost stores, but experts say Shopify and Meta need to take responsibility for enabling these sites and allowing them to run false advertising.

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