Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. accused companies of lodging what it said were spurious complaints about fake goods and other intellectual-property violations on its online shopping platforms.
The reports, filed to Alibaba by reputation-protection firms hired by global brands, contained false allegations, forged documents and bad-faith registration of trademarks, according to Alibaba. These reports hurt more than a million legitimate businesses on Alibaba’s largest site, Taobao, last year, the company said Thursday on its blog.
Alibaba called on global brands to stop hiring brand-protection firms that file improper claims on their behalf, naming one firm, Hangzhou Wangwei Technology Co. Ltd., as an abuser of its system for reporting intellectual-property breaches. Alibaba said it would no longer process claims filed by Hangzhou Wangwei, which it said had withdrawn more than 60% of the complaints it had made since 2015 after sellers appealed.
Alibaba said it has information “suggesting” that Hangzhou Wangwei took steps to file complaints against competitors of the brand-protection firm’s clients, sometimes driving customers to higher-priced products on the platforms.
Hangzhou Wangwei, in a statement on its website, denied claims of misdeeds, saying it only works with global brands or their authorized representatives in the “strict enforcement of legal and compliant intellectual property protection work.” The statement didn’t mention Alibaba, but a Hangzhou Wangwei representative said it was issued in response to Alibaba’s actions.
Alibaba has come under fire for the presence of fake goods on its platforms. In December, the U.S. Trade Representative put Alibaba’s Taobao platform back on a list of marketplaces notorious for counterfeit goods.
Global brands have complained that Alibaba isn’t doing enough to remove fakes. The e-commerce company has said that counterfeits are an issue for every online shopping platform, and that it is devoting a growing amount of time and resources to tackling the problem.
—Junya Qian and Lilian Lin contributed to this report.
