TaoBao Deserves 'Notorious Market' Label, AAFA Tells USTR
The TaoBao online service of Alibaba should be relisted as a "notorious market," the American Apparel and Footwear Association said in an Oct. 5 filing with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (here) and a news release (here). While…
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the agency removed TaoBao from the list in 2012, the company should be added again due to its continued peddling of counterfeit products, said the AAFA. "Unfortunately, delisting TaoBao in 2012 did not lead to sustained improvements to the counterfeit problem. In fact, it has gotten worse," the trade group said. "Increased pressure is needed to fix this problem. Otherwise, counterfeits will only continue to proliferate worldwide as Alibaba continues to expand." The AAFA has pushed hard for regulators to address the company's counterfeit sales in recent years (see 1504100012). "While we have engaged in a dialogue with Alibaba for the past four years, and extensively for much of the past year, we have had little success in convincing Alibaba to craft a program that will rid TaoBao of counterfeits," it said. The annual USTR notorious markets list identifies "select online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting," it said.