THE United States has added 42 new online markets and 35 physical ones to its annual counterfeit and piracy list, including the China-based Alibaba’s AliExpress and WeChat’s e-commerce platforms, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said yesterday.

“The 2021 Notorious Markets List also identifies 42 online markets and 35 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy,” Sputnik quoted the USTR as saying in a statement.

“This includes identifying for the first time AliExpress and the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem, two significant China-based online markets that reportedly facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting.”

The USTR said it had maintained other China-based online markets such as Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo and Taobao added to the list previously, along with nine physical Chinese markets known to manufacture, distribute and sell counterfeit goods.

In the case of Alibaba’s AliExpress, the USTR acknowledged the platform’s reputation for having “some of the best anti-counterfeiting processes and systems in the e-commerce industry”.

“Although these efforts are laudable, this year, rights holders have noted a significant increase in counterfeit goods being offered for sale on AliExpress, including goods that are blatantly advertised as counterfeit and goods that are falsely advertised as genuine,” the statement said.

“Rights holders also report a vast increase in the number of sellers offering counterfeit goods. Alibaba notes that AliExpress sellers must provide a business licence in order to sell on the platform, but these sellers apparently are not sufficiently vetted to ensure that they will not be selling counterfeit goods.”

Another key concern of rights holders is that known sellers of counterfeit goods on AliExpress remain prevalent, “purportedly due in part to the lenient seller penalty system and a removal process that does not deter sellers from continuing to offer counterfeit goods”, the statement said.

In the case of WeChat, the platform is viewed as one of the largest for counterfeit goods sales in China, with more than 1.2 billion active users around the world in 2021, despite its self-description as a “social communication tool and information publishing platform”, the statement said.

“Of particular concern, however, is the e-commerce ecosystem that seamlessly functions within the overall WeChat platform and facilitates the distribution and sale of counterfeit products,” the statement said.

“For example, sellers of counterfeit goods are allegedly directing potential buyers to their counterfeit product offerings by advertising on WeChat through livestreams, the Moments feature, the Channels feature, and other communication portals that are available to all users such as scanning of QR codes at physical stores.”

Based on data compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the volume of international trade in counterfeit and pirated products in 2019 amounted to as much as US$464 billion (RM1.94 trillion), or 2.5% of world trade. – Bernama, February 18, 2022.