The Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives recently included Rebel, a Canadian online domain register known as a “safe haven” for illegitimate Internet pharmacies, on its 2015 Notorious Markets List. In an article published in CircleID.com, Libby Baney, senior director for FaegreBD Consulting and founder and executive director of the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP), discussed the dangers of online pharmacies, citing a study that showed that "50 percent of the medicines sold online are counterfeit." However, Baney touted the measures other Internet gatekeepers have taken to protect consumers from illegal e-pharmacies, arguing that Rebel “is the exception” among domain registrars, “at least when it comes to registry and registrar action against illegitimate online drug sellers.”

“The public health threat posed by illegitimate online drug sellers is what brought together three major domain competitors—GoDaddy, Rightside and Neustar—in 2010,” Baney wrote. “Joined by ten other major companies, representing different ‘chokepoints’ in the Internet purchasing chain, the group formed the nonprofit Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP). In 2014 alone, CSIP members report taking action on 9.6 million illegitimate pharmacy websites.”

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