Knockoff Complaints Fall as Alibaba Applies Pressure

2019/01/18

The 2018 Alibaba Intellectual Property Protection Annual Report, the third of its kind released by the e-commerce giant, said Alibaba alerted police in 2018 to more than 1,600 cases of online sales of knockoffs amounting to at least 50,000 Yuan ($7,363), meeting the threshold for criminal penalties. The report said 96% of the products that Alibaba took the initiative to remove from its online shopping portal Taobao on suspicion of intellectual property infringement were removed before any transactions took place. The number of removals decreased by 67% year-on-year, following a 29% decline in 2017. Intellectual property rights complaints from brand owners fell by 32% year-on-year. The number of products removed from Alibaba's online stores after consumer tips about suspected knockoffs dropped by 70% year-on-year. The report said 1.11 out of every 10,000 orders were suspected to be fake products, 26% below the previous year.

Source: China Daily