Alibaba joins big brands to fight counterfeits

BEIJING: China's e-commerce giant Alibaba today joined hands with 20 brands to fight counterfeit goods through big data analysis after the US last month labelled the company as one of the world's largest destinations for fake goods.

The first "alliance to fight counterfeits with big data" was initiated by Alibaba in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, the company said.

Among the first 20 members of the alliance are Chinese and international brands, including Huawei, LV, Swarovski, Dulux, Samsung, Sony and Bioderma.

Alibaba said the move would make the fight against counterfeiting more powerful and transparent.

The move was backed by police authorities in many provinces across China.

"Counterfeiting is rampant in the global market these days, and it's increasingly difficult to eradicate bogus goods using traditional offline means," said Jessie Zheng, Alibaba Group's chief platform governance officer.

She said that Alibaba Group was willing to join the fight against counterfeits with its technologies and resources in order to protect consumer rights.

Based on Alibaba big data analysis, Chinese law enforcement authorities closed 675 workshops, warehouses and vendors producing and selling fake goods, from September 2015 to August 2016.

Over the same period, Alibaba Group closed 180,000 stores on its shopping platform Taobao.com.

"Alibaba's big data and cloud computing technologies provided strong technical support and improved efficiency in our fight against counterfeits," said Wang Hui, deputy chief of the economic crime investigation team under Zhejiang public security bureau.

Last month the US had labelled Alibaba Group Holding Ltd branding it as one of the world's largest destinations for fake goods, a major embarrassment for a Chinese e-commerce giant trying to shake off its reputation as a haven for counterfeiters.

The US Office of the Trade Representative (USTR) restored Alibaba to its annual Notorious Markets blacklist -- just four years after the Chinese company managed to get out of it.