Just a few days before Christmas, the US Trade Representative (USTR) unloaded a stocking full of coal on Alibaba. Taobao, Alibaba’s C2C ecommerce platform, is officially back on the USTR “notorious markets” list.
For Alibaba, this is mostly a PR problem. Being included on the notorious markets list is a black mark, suggesting that a company is guilty of allowing rampant piracy and IP theft, but it doesn’t come with any sort of sanction and it isn’t likely to affect Taobao’s day-to-day business. Still, after having finally gotten Taobao off the list back in 2012 (after reportedly spending almost half a million lobbying the US government), Alibaba certainly isn’t pleased to now be included again.
In a statement attributed to Alibaba Group president Michael Evans, Alibaba says that it is “very disappointed” by the decision to re-include Taobao. “[W]e are far more effective and advanced in IPR protection than when the USTR took us off the list four years ago,” the statement reads. “The decision ignores the real work Alibaba has done to protect IP rights holders and assist law enforcement to bring counterfeiters to justice.”
Alibaba’s response also questions the reason for the decision, pointing out that 100,000 brands are happy to operate on its platforms. “We question whether the USTR acted based on the actual facts or was influenced by the current political climate.”
Certainly, the USTR was getting pressure from both sides while making this decision. After submitting a public draft of its report for comments this summer, numerous trade groups appealed to the USTR to put Taobao back on the list, and Alibaba itself lobbied to stay off, submitting a detailed report of its anti-counterfeiting accomplishments.
The trade groups, it seems, have won this round, and Alibaba will have to renew its effort to get back off the US government’s “naughty” list.
This post Alibaba’s Taobao is officially back on America’s naughty list appeared first on Tech in Asia.
from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/alibabas-taobao-officially-americas-naughty-list
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