How Surfshark safeguards the trust behind its cybersecurity brand against digital piracy

Protecting a Brand Built on Trust

Surfshark is on a mission to make online security simple. Since launching in 2018, the company has grown into one of the world's leading cybersecurity brands, serving customers in more than 100 countries with an all-in-one suite of privacy and security products. Trust is central to everything Surfshark does—from independent audits of its no-logs policy and RAM-only server infrastructure to transparency reports that demonstrate its commitment to protecting customer privacy.

As Surfshark's global presence expanded, so did the challenge of protecting its brand. Hundreds of unauthorized resellers emerged across online marketplaces, creating customer confusion, diverting revenue, and putting the brand's reputation at risk. For a company built on trust, protecting customers from unauthorized sellers became just as important as protecting them online, leading Surfshark to partner with MarqVision to identify and remove infringing listings at scale.

The Surfshark Suite

Online privacy, security, and identity protection — all in one.

It starts fast with a VPN built for speed and privacy. It stays protected with Antivirus, extending security across every device. And it stays informed with Alert, notifying users when their personal data appears in a breach. Three layers of protection, working together as one seamless experience—and exactly what unauthorized resellers and impersonation sites try to imitate. Keeping that experience exclusively in Surfshark's hands is what this partnership protects.

The Challenge

Hundreds of Unauthorized Resellers. One Manual Process That Couldn't Keep Up.

As Surfshark grew, so did the challenge of unauthorized resellers across online marketplaces. At its peak, hundreds of unauthorized sellers were offering Surfshark products, diverting revenue from the company's direct channels while creating confusion for customers who unknowingly purchased through the gray market and received a subpar experience.

Before partnering with MarqVision, Surfshark relied on a fully manual process to identify unauthorized websites and reseller listings. Every potential infringement had to be reviewed individually, making enforcement slow, resource-intensive, and difficult to scale. Instead of focusing on meaningful threats, the team spent valuable time filtering out false positives and irrelevant results.

The Solution

Cleaning Up the Marketplace. Automated Enforcement Across Shopee, eBay, and Beyond.

Over two years with MarqVision, Surfshark transformed brand protection from a manual, reactive process into an automated, scalable operation. Custom enforcement workflows replaced listing-by-listing review, reducing false positives, accelerating takedowns, and giving the team greater control over enforcement across online marketplaces.

The biggest impact came on platforms where unauthorized reseller activity was most concentrated, including Shopee, eBay, and other leading marketplaces. By automating detection and streamlining enforcement, Surfshark was able to spend less time sorting through irrelevant listings and more time protecting customers, revenue, and the integrity of its brand.

The Results

A Lasting Reduction in Unauthorized Reseller Activity

Today, Surfshark has seen a sustained decline in unauthorized reseller activity across marketplaces. Over the past 2 years, MarqVision removed 2,146 unauthorized listings, recovering an estimated $237,046 in economic value while maintaining a 96.4% compliance rate on enforcement requests — identifying 635 unauthorized sellers, including 253 repeat offenders, along the way.

Protection now extends well beyond marketplaces. MarqVision has delisted 34,444 infringing links from search engines, removed 8,111 pieces of unauthorized website content, and taken down 534 fraudulent social media profiles and posts impersonating the Surfshark brand. What was once a time-consuming, reactive process is now an always-on capability that helps keep every channel cleaner, protects direct revenue, and ensures customers are finding the authentic Surfshark experience.

Customer Trust Starts with Brand Protection

For Surfshark, brand protection isn't simply about removing unauthorized listings—it's about protecting the customer experience. In cybersecurity, where trust is the product, every unauthorized reseller or impersonation site has the potential to erode customer confidence and damage the brand's reputation. Protecting customers from those risks is an essential part of delivering the secure, reliable experience Surfshark promises.

More than a brand protection program, the partnership with MarqVision has become part of how Surfshark protects its reputation, strengthens customer trust, and delivers the experience users expect every time they choose Surfshark.