Will US Investors Fund Global Counterfeiting?
Counterfeit products are the top global criminal enterprise
Los Angeles, CA, June 30, 2014 - Investors are generally cautious people, they don’t like to be fooled, invest in shady companies or lose money. China’s Alibaba® is asking investors to invest $20 billion in its e-commerce enterprise, but what exactly is Alibaba?
Alibaba’s websites are ideal and successful e-commerce platforms for counterfeiters and dishonest sellers to distribute the $1 trillion (yes, trillion) in counterfeit goods, 90% of which originate in China.
Alibaba is China’s e-commerce giant, accounting for over 80% of China’s online business, and 50% of parcels shipped in China. Alibaba conducts more online business than Amazon® and eBay® combined.
Alibaba is no stranger to counterfeit goods distribution, having only recently been removed from the US Government’s 2013 “Notorious Markets” list which identifies select online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in, and facilitate substantial piracy and counterfeiting. The Office of The United States Trade Representative named China to a watch list in April for not doing enough to fight intellectual-property crimes.
Alibaba subsidiary Taobao.com trumpeted its removal of approximately 20% of its 800 million website listings in 2013 as suspected infringing listings, but didn’t identify just how many products were simply relisted for sale. Well-known US brands still have hundreds to thousands of counterfeit copies of their authentic goods offered online, and manufacturers are vocal that not enough is being done to stop counterfeiting and brand damage, for example;
"As nearly as we can tell, every Browning knife on this (Alibaba) website is counterfeit. Do your due diligence and make sure before you buy. Beware!" – Browning Sporting Goods website.
"99.5 percent of purported Monster® products sold on Alibaba sites are fakes. We have received no cooperation from Alibaba to resolve this matter," -- Dave Tognotti, General Manager of popular headphone and electronics manufacturer, Monster Products.
It takes no sleuthing to find fake products on the e-commerce giants Alibaba, AliExpress, and Taobao.com websites. Even products that simply never existed in a manufacturer’s product line, yet still carry a fake manufacturer’s brand, remain on the Alibaba websites.
Alibaba’s intellectual property in-house counsel, David Ho, cites a comparison of their anti-counterfeiting efforts to a game of whack-a-mole, offering Alibaba’s new toothless “three strike” proposal for counterfeit goods web merchants, yet the problem is all too familiar, far more serious than a game, and financially devastating for US and global manufacturers.
The enforcement plan1 for Alibaba and Aliexpress.com (subsidiary Taobao.com is conspicuously absent) begins only after offenders are identified; then comes a warning, a 7-day suspension, and finally the closure of the storefront’s current identity.
Hardly an effective strategy, says The Counterfeit Report®, a popular consumer website that tracks offending websites, educates consumers and regularly purchases counterfeit products from e-commerce sites including Alibaba, eBay and Amazon. Infringing e-commerce sellers simply continue, or they return under different or multiple identities while the web hosts transaction fees continue to roll in. And, vendors have an out if they choose to contest the product removal 2.
Counterfeit products destroy jobs, ruin consumer confidence, damage legitimate manufacturer’s reputations and may be dangerous or deadly. Counterfeit products account for about 10% of global trade, yet remain relatively unnoticed by US consumers who lose billions each year to these deceptive and dangerous products. Alibaba is now asking investors to invest in its websites irrespective of its dubious history.
A detailed investigation by the US International Trade Commission, US Trade Representative, and a close examination by the SEC and investors is warranted before allowing further consumer exposure to unknowingly purchasing deceptive, hazardous or deadly counterfeit products. If China wants investor confidence and global support, much more is required than its laughable approach to counterfeiting, after all – it’s US consumers who ultimately get hurt.
Website: www.TheCounterfeitReport.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Counterfeit-Report/131568053660579
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