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
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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