Alibaba Turns A Blind Eye To Counterfeits

Alibaba snubs brand owners, counterfeit products continue to flood the market.

March 7, 2019, Los Angeles, CA – Alibaba, the global go-to source for counterfeit goods has some big credibility problems. Alibaba's brand protection claim; "Listings of counterfeits, replicas, or other unauthorized items are prohibited on the Site strictly"-- is simply not true. Appropriately named after the fable “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves,” Alibaba and its subsidiary websites (AliExpress.com, Taobao.com, 11main.com, etc.) flood the online marketplace with counterfeit, fraudulent and replica products. The fake items land in the hands of businesses, consumers and fraudulent re-sellers on Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other e-commerce websites.

In response, Alibaba was publicly condemned by The Office of the United States Trade Representative, and landed on the U.S. Notorious Markets List - a designation is reserved for the world's most notorious markets for counterfeit goods.

Still, Alibaba snubbed brand owners for the two-week Chinese Holiday with the message; "During the holiday, all the process of IPR [Intellectual Property Right] complaint enforcement may be suspended, including the process of complaint case, email reply, etc. (Note: Some colleagues may come back to office later than Feb. 11th)." Alibaba's poor enforcement may lead some brand owners to wonder if they were ever there at all.

The Counterfeit Report, an award winning industry watchdog and consumer advocate, found and removed over 152 million infringing items on Alibaba websites on behalf the brand owners. Counterfeit listings are often ignored, or receive an all-to-common response; "The trademark in question and / or its similarities is not found in the listing. Please advise where the infringement part is in the listing."

For example; The Counterfeit Report has removed 1.3 million counterfeit Mongoose® cables from Alibaba websites. "Mongoose" is a registered trademark (Reg. No. 3,656,515) of Drew Technologies®, Inc. and used on their $495 diagnostic cable and software kit. Alibaba was notified of this counterfeit listing and provided the trademark, but couldn't find it for two-weeks. Can you?

Alibaba obstacles continue to confront brand owners. Existing accounts must be re-created including an absurd verification process, logins are non-functioning, users must accept prohibitive new reporting terms and conditions, and counterfeit complaints are regularly returned as undeliverable.

Alibaba's opaque summation;

"In case of conflicts between the Chinese version and the English version of this User Agreement, the Chinese version shall prevail" -- Anyone understand Chinese?

Jack Ma, politically attached to the Communist Party, Alibaba's cofounder, and bad-boy of counterfeits has stepped down as CEO. While the lines between business and politics have become increasingly hazy, the relationship between China's government and leading internet companies including Alibaba and Huawei continues to mature.

Alibaba Group President Michael Evans claims that the company has worked above and beyond to protect brands. The fact is, the company ignores its own policies and counterfeit notifications from brand owners. Counterfeits remain, consumers are deceived, and manufacturers and retailers are being harmed in a big way with little recourse.

Companies that enable and facilitate criminal activity and profit from dishonest sales which impact consumer safety, jobs and public trust create a public perception of deception and impunity. The consequence is destroyed U.S. companies and retailers, lost U.S. jobs and duped consumers. The value of counterfeit and pirated goods is forecast to grow to $2.8 trillion, and cost 5.4 million net job losses by 2022 states a 2017 International Chamber of Commerce Report. Counterfeiting is now the world's largest criminal enterprise.

Congress can act to punish the offenders, shut down the pipeline, and protect consumers and the economy.

Will they?