The USTR (United State Trade Representative) has just added a number of companies in its “Notorious Markets list” recently. The latest additions in the list includes a number of Chinese tech firms, like AliExpress and WeChat.
Looking at the official list, the USTR has added a number of business that it considers being involved in trading counterfeit goods and promoting piracy. The official data lists 42 online sites and around 35 physical stores, which includes e-commerce based platforms as well. The trade agency believes that these businesses “engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright privacy.”
Notable brands in this list include AliExpress, which is owned by the Alibaba group, along with the Tencent operated WeChat. The USTR stated that the AliExpress platform offered a number of anti-counterfeiting tools and systems, however, despite its efforts there were a significant rise in counterfeit goods being offered for sale on AliExpress. Similarly, it also flagged WeChat’s e-commerce ecosystem for facilitating the “distribution and sale of counterfeit products.”
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement that “The global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods undermines critical US innovation and creativity and harms American workers.” On the other hand, Tencent said that “We strongly disagree with the decision made by the United States Trade Representative and are committed to working collaboratively to resolve this matter.” It also added that it has invested significant resources into protecting intellectual property rights as well. Notably, the news arrives amid the ongoing frictions between the US and China. So it remains to be seen how the situation impacts the two major China based online markets.
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