Alibaba Calls for Heavier Counterfeiting Penalties

2017/03/01

E-commerce website Alibaba Group has appealed for heavier penalties against counterfeiters.
Alibaba’s news site Alizila released a statement on February 27, calling for the “stricter enforcement” and “stiffer penalties” to crack down on counterfeiters in China.
In a press conference at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Alibaba said that China’s “ambiguous counterfeiting laws” were hampering the authorities’ ability to build legal cases against counterfeiters.
In the statement, Alibaba said that it has “long faced criticism over the sale of counterfeits” by independent vendors in its e-commerce marketplaces, which host 1.5 billion listings at any given time.
Alibaba called for the further development of laws and regulations, stricter law enforcement and harsher punishments.
Alibaba stressed that the company remains firmly committed to continuing its “anti-counterfeiting battle”, but that its ability to remove merchants and products from its marketplace will be “much less productive in the long-run without the support of more legally enforceable sanctions”.

Source: WIPR