Louis Vuitton and Taobao against counterfei​t goods

Treading in the wake of the federal courts ruling against

e-commerce marketplace Tradekey.com, Taobao Marketplace announced a partnership with French luxury brand Louis Vuitton in its continued fight against counterfeit products in China.

Taobao Marketplace, part of the Alibaba Group, launched in 2003 and is currently a well-established consumer-to-consumers online marketplace based in China. Taobao offers over 800 million product listings and in 2012 had reached over 500 million registered users. Previously, the company had a reputation of listing counterfeit goods from sellers who wanted to attract a larger clientele basis and was on the United States Trade representative list of “notorious markets” for piracy sites. However, since then Taobao has been working hard and enlisting the help of agencies and brands to help rebuild their reputation as a legitimate online marketplace. Recently, Taobao has signed agreements with the US based Motion Picture Association and the International Anti Counterfeiting Coalition. Their partnership with the IACC calls upon the aid of all members of the coalition, such as Apple and the Walt Disney Company, to help Taobao single out ‘copy-right infringement products’ advertised on its site and take the listings down. According to company officials, Taobao’s efforts against counterfeiting have made it more difficult for sellers to list and sell their replicated goods.

The new partnership between Louis Vuitton and Taobao is planned to help the company move forward towards “building a fairer and more transparent online business environment.” According to Alizila, Alibaba’s own news website, with this agreement Taobao will continue to “proactively take down product listings of suspected counterfeit goods and implement preventive measures to stop sellers from listing fake items.” These new procedures will help strengthen the current system Taobao has developed. Valerie Sonnier, Global intellectual property director at Louis Vuitton, stated that “such collaboration is invaluable to us, in order to prevent the manufacture, transport and sales of counterfeit goods, online as well as off-line.” Ni Liang, Senior Director of Internet Security at Alibaba Group added: "Taobao Marketplace is dedicated to the protection of intellectual property rights and the fight against counterfeiting. We firmly believe that the collaboration between brands, platforms and government agencies will create visible and significant results in the intellectual property enforcement space.”

Taobao is not alone in the battle against counterfeits. China’s government has strengthened it anti-piracy laws and local authorities have begun to crack down hard on imitation manufactures and sellers. This year spring, local law enforcement in southern China's Guizhou province disrupted an established counterfeit ring and confiscated more than 6,000 replica items, with a total value worth more than 81 million yuan, or 13 million dollars. The leading suspect was the store’s owner, who sold his counterfeit goods online and admitted “most buyers could not tell the difference from genuine items,” according to a report in Want China Times. Counterfeit goods from China continue to make their way into the European Union, in 2012 alone it was estimated that EU customs officials intercepted 1.5 billion dollars worth of replica items. According to latest reports on customs actions from the European Commission, the UK has one of the ‘highest reporting figures’ in Europe, with over 4 million seizures of counterfeit clothing, perfumes and cosmetics in 2012.