Automated intelligence service to detect, flag and report unauthorised and illicit online selling of pesticides and plant protection products

Intelligence SaaS for online illicit trade detection and EU Digital Services Act Enforcement (Trusted Flaggers) from Vistalworks: Illicit and Unauthorised Pesticides and Crop Protection Module

Overview

Crop and Plant Protection Products are highly regulated and subject to strict restrictions governing their registration, user and seller type, usage, location, and ingredients. However, illicit and unauthorised pesticides, biocides and other crop protection products are being unlawfully sold online on e-commerce and social media marketplaces.

New regulations such as the UK Online Safety Act and the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) have introduced fines of up to 6%-10% of global annual revenues for platforms who do not effectively protect the public from harmful and illegal goods and content.

Vistalworks’ solution methodically identifies, flags and alerts on illicit pesticides and plant protection products being sold online across specific jurisdictions. Users are then able to quickly take the necessary action to risk profile, report or action a removal or enforcement response to illegal content and product listings.

This greatly increases the find rate and decreases the search time for your team - no more time wasted manually scrolling through online marketplaces and standalone sites. Initial matching and risk-scoring is carried out at a local level against national and EU regulations meaning that it is easily customisable to your preferred locations.

Who it is for

This module of our innovative illicit trade intelligence platform enables the detection and flagging of unlawfully traded pesticides, biocides and crop protection products. It is particularly relevant to:

• Government and public sector users, including Digital Services Act regulators, national contact points and specialist regulatory enforcement agencies
• Industry groups and NGOs with a Trusted Flaggers or Plant and Crop Protection specific remit
• Brands, businesses, corporates and manufacturers with plant and crop protection related IP, including those working in brand security, regulatory compliance, and CSR.

Key Features: Detect, risk score & report the sale of unlicensed and unlawfully traded crop protection products online

This ‘Trusted Flaggers’ data intelligence module from Vistalworks enables users to detect, risk score and report the unauthorised and illicit online selling of pesticides and plant protection products.

This is one of a series of specialised modules that supports businesses, industry groups and regulators tasked with enforcing the EU Digital Services Act, including the Trusted Flaggers provisions to track and report unlawful goods and content for removal.

• Sits within Vistalworks platform to detect, profile and prevent the online trade in harmful content and illicit and unauthorised good.
• Identifies and risk scores the unauthorised online selling of restricted, counterfeit, smuggled and otherwise illicitly traded goods on social media, ecommerce marketplaces, search engines and other digital platform.
• Accurate in detecting high-risk, multi-language, and context dependent trading terms, behaviours, and patterns in small, sparse and large datasets.
• Automated flagging and reporting. Maintains the necessary logs and decision records to support audits and performance analysis. API and custom case management systems integrations available.
• Users can filter and action results by a range of factors including usage category, risk type, selling platform, jurisdiction, brand, and product type.
• Full out-sourcing of end-to-end process available, with consultancy style findings-only reporting if required.

The underpinning risk-scoring models retain a ‘human in the loop’, for example by utilising rules-based scoring as part of its barrage of deployed scripts. Full auditable logs of matches and flagging decisions are maintained. This means the service is not classified as an AI System under EU Regulations and is therefore eligible for use by the public sector in an enforcement and investigation capacity.