Alibaba named "Notorious Market" AGAIN

[Walter Hay]

In this article by Bloomberg, Alibaba Again Named ‘Notorious Market’ in Blow to Overseas Push Alibaba has been restored to the infamous "Notorious Markets" list as a haven for knockoffs, just 4 years after managing to have their name removed.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association made a submission to the US Trade Representative in October 2016 on behalf of 1000 brands, stating that counterfeits remained “rampant” on Alibaba’s shopping sites, particularly the online flea market Taobao. According to AAFA, fakes appeared in half the results for the brands it monitored.

About the same time, Unifab, which is an anti-counterfeiting organization for about 400 French and global brands, did likewise.

Unifab said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal “Despite a dialogue with Alibaba and years of negotiations, a tremendous amount of fake items can be found...... No real proactive measures have been implemented to remove fake listings.”

I have posted many times about the risks involved in importing counterfeits, but I note that unscrupulous sellers of "dropship from Aliexpress" courses sell big brand counterfeits themselves and encourage others to do likewise. They even go so far as to advise setting up their business in a jurisdiction that doesn't police IP rights.

It has been reported that last year there were thousands of listings of counterfeits taken down by Amazon, but I think Amazon are not sufficiently alert to the problem.

I am pleased to see that in addition to this move by the USTR, border protection, and FTC authorities have been very active lately in apprehending resellers of fakes. Huge numbers have been prosecuted.

Walter

 

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[Walter Hay]

As an addition to what I wrote above, I suggest that anyone who sees a big brand name product or counterfeit for sale on Amazon or eBay should report it to Amazon or eBay, but also if you can find an appropriate contact address, report it to the brand owner or a distributor.

We all have a responsibility to help protect IP rights from thieves.

If the vendor is clearly an authorized distributor, or the brand owner, there is obviously no illegality, so ignore this post.

Walter

 

[Merging Left]

To piggyback on your points, the punishment for importing, shipping, and/or selling counterfeit goods is quite severe in the US. Even if you're based outside of the US, you risk having your entire shipment seized and destroyed by US Customs.

If you are in the US, you face very high fines and potential prison time. Don't be tempted by easy money by ordering fake goods. The risks far, FAR outweigh the potential income.

 

[dbelov275]

Alibaba’s (NYSE:BABA) Taiwan Start-Up Business Fund discloses it has invested in 11 start-ups in the region so far.

Today's news

 

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[Walter Hay]

Alibaba’s (NYSE:BABA) Taiwan Start-Up Business Fund discloses it has invested in 11 start-ups in the region so far.

Today's news

The strong business connections between Taiwan and mainland China began in the mid 1980s and has grown to a huge level. Many of the Chinese manufacturing businesses were set up by Taiwanese companies, under Taiwanese management, but majority ownership had to be in the hands of mainland Chinese.

Those companies under Taiwanese management quickly taught employees the Taiwanese attitude to QC, but those Chinese companies that started up without that guidance took a long time to learn to change their attitude towards quality. Many have still not learned it. That doesn't auger well for high quality production.

I saw first hand the changing attitude in Taiwan, where factory conditions when I first visited there in 1978 were often appalling, but by the mid 80s some formerly dirty factories were clinically clean. Wherever that happens, that is reflected in the mindset of the employees.

This partly explains the bad reputation of Chinese products in general, but it gives opportunities for astute buyers to locate superior quality products there.

The Taiwanese startups being financed by Alibaba will almost certainly set up production in mainland China, because the living standard in Taiwan means labor costs are way above what they need to pay to be competitive.

Walter