We are continuing to invest in systems and processes that will help prevent the purchase of lost or stolen items. EasyTradeNow was the first U.S. trade-in site to leverage CheckMEND. Our goal is to learn from the much more mature trade-in process in Europe, where a tool like CheckMEND is tightly tied to law enforcement; any device that is being sold is checked against a database and if it had been flagged as lost or stolen, law enforcement is immediately notified and able to investigate. There are also laws protecting trade-in businesses who responsibly check and report the devices they purchase.

We do see progress in the United States. The U.S. carriers, for example, are collaborating with the FCC to build a central database that will provide information on stolen items and OEM’s like Apple are beginning to build functionality into their devices that permits remote device blocking. EasyTradeNow is very supportive of these new approaches and technology.