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Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant, has made public a list of complaints against what it says are China's "ambiguous counterfeiting laws" which it believes are making enforcement against counterfeiters difficult. Due to limitations in the law, building a legal case against counterfeiters is extremely difficult. Alibaba names this the fundamental reason for inefficiency in combating counterfeiting and protecting intellectual property."
Alibaba has been a frequent target of criticism for allowing counterfeit products to be sold via its online platform. Alibaba now cites current regulations as not being sufficient to the task of stopping counterfeiting in China, saying that “Criminals can estapte any legal consequence, leaving law enforcement agents and consumers feeling helpless.”
The company urged authorities to strengthen laws, boost enforcement and impose more punitive penalties to deter counterfeiters. "Alibaba Group is itself a victim of counterfeiting," the group claims. "Counterfeiting is damaging, not only to consumers and legitimate merchants, but also to innovation and the long-term economic development of our nation, hindering China's growth as a responsible economic power."
Though host to a range of counterfeit products Alibaba is at the forefront of the fight against counterfeiting via its system of screening and monitoring of product listings, advanced search and image recognition, and utilization of big-data as well as big manpower to monitor its services.
Alibaba officials stressed the company remains firmly committed to continuing its anti-counterfeiting battle, but its ability to remove merchants and products from its marketplaces will be much less-productive in the long run without the support of more legally enforceable sanctions.
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