26/06/2018 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 25 June, the European Commission announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on online advertising and intellectual property rights by 27 businesses and organisations in the advertising sector to tackle counterfeiting and piracy on the Internet. The aim is to: minimise product placement on websites and mobile apps, which infringe copyright or disseminate counterfeit products, in order to reduce these sites' revenues. This memorandum of understanding was signed in backdrop to the first ‘Blockathon’, a hackathon organised from 22-25 June by the Commission and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) as part of the fight against online counterfeiting and piracy. The Commission is seeking to tackle this phenomenon and presented a raft of non-legislative initiatives at the end of 2017 in this regard (see EUROPE 11915). (PH)