Internet retail giant Rakuten has announced it is terminating sales of whale products through its Japanese marketplace Rakuten Ichiba and has given merchants 30 days to remove them. But thousands of ivory products are still for sale.
According to Rakuten’s statement, posted on its website: “In accordance with the March 31, 2014 ruling by the International Court of Justice, Rakuten Ichiba today asked merchants to cancel sales of whale meat products on the Rakuten Ichiba marketplace.
“Rakuten has also requested these merchants to remove all related items from their online shops within the next 30 days.”
Shown in the picture is an advertisement for minke what meat copied from the Rakuten website in March by The Ecologist.
The move follows the International Court of Justice ruling against Japan’s fraudulent ‘scientific’ whaling in the Antarctic.
Rakuten’s wildlife trade exposed
It also comes after the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), in conjunction with Humane Society International (HSI), launched the report Blood e-Commerce last month.
The report exposed Rakuten as the world’s biggest online marketplace for elephant ivory and whale meat products – shortly before EIA Senior Campaigner Clare Perry said: “The removal of thousands of ads for whale products is a very welcome step and a clear recognition by Rakuten that selling the meat of endangered and protected whales and dolphins is seriously harmful to both its global reputation and customers’ health.”
Now, just a small problem with ivory
But EIA President Allan Thornton added: “Japan is awash with illegal ivory trade and Rakuten’s thousands of ivory ads help fuel the mass slaughter of elephants across Africa. We appeal to Rakuten to help protect elephants by immediately banning all ads for ivory products.”
HSI Vice president Kitty Block said: “This is a good step for protecting whales and dolphins but Rakuten must take the next step and ban ivory ads to help protect Africa’s elephants.”
As well as Rakuten Ichiba, the company owns Rakuten Shopping (formerly Buy.com) in the US, Play.com in the UK, PriceMinister in France, shopping sites in Germany, Austria, Brazil and other countries, Canadian e-book reader Kobu and popular chat app Viber, as well as being a major shareholder in Pinterest.
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http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2344335/rakuten_pulls_whale_products_but_ivory_sales_continue.html