The United States of America has added E-commerce sites operated by China’s Tencent and Alibaba Group to the U.S. government’s latest “notorious markets” list.
The list comprises entities that allegedly sell or facilitate the sale of counterfeit goods.
The list identifies 42 online sites and 35 physical stores, including e-commerce platforms run by the firms.
“This includes identifying for the first time AliExpress and the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem, two significant China-based online markets that reportedly facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting,” the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said in a statement on its website.
AliExpress is owned by Alibaba and WeChat is operated by Tencent.
Reacting to this, a spokesperson for Tencent told BBC that the company disagrees with the decision of the USTR. He noted that the company had “invested significant resources” into protecting intellectual property rights on its platforms.
Founded in 1998 with its headquarters in Shenzhen, China, Tencent is a world-leading internet and technology company that develops innovative products and services.
The company also publishes some of the world’s most popular video games and other high-quality digital content.
Alibaba, on the other hand, is a Chinese multinational technology company which specialises in e-commerce, retail, internet and technology.
It was founded in 1999 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang to provide consumer-to-consumer (C2C), business-to-consumer (B2C), and business-to-business (B2B) sales services via web portals, electronic payment services, shopping search engines and cloud computing services.
It also owns and operates a diverse portfolio of companies around the world in numerous business sectors.
According to the USTR, the “notorious markets” list is aimed at protecting American businesses and workers from the effects of cheap counterfeit goods that are usually manufactured outside the US.
“The global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods undermines critical U.S. innovation and creativity and harms American workers.
“This illicit trade also increases the vulnerability of workers involved in the manufacturing of counterfeit goods to exploitative labor practices, and the counterfeit goods can pose significant risks to the health and safety of consumers and workers around the world”, USTR’s spokesperson, Ambassador Katherine Tai said in the statement.
USTR also revealed that China-based online markets Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo, and Taobao continue to be listed, as well as nine physical markets located within China that are known for their manufacture, distribution, and sale of counterfeit goods.