Chinese technology giants, such as the owners of the AliExpress (Alibaba) and WeChat (Tencent) platforms, appear on the list of companies complicit in hacking released this Wednesday by the Office of the US Government Trade Representative.
Counterfeit and “hacked” goods from China accounted for 75% of the value of fraudulent items seized by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2021.
The update to the “Most Notorious Counterfeiting and Piracy Markets Report” details a number of companies complicit in the counterfeiting and piracy of physical and digital products, including cultural products such as movies or music.
According to this office in the report, WeChat, Tencent’s application, similar to WhatsApp, but with many extra functions, is “one of the largest platforms for counterfeit products in China.”
Although Tencent describes it as a “media tool and information publishing platform,” WeChat “provides an e-commerce ecosystem that facilitates the distribution and sale of counterfeit products to users of the WeChat platform,” it details.
This practice is made possible by features such as short video WeChat “channels” to advertise counterfeit products directly to consumers, who can then purchase them through another feature, the “shopping cart,” in the app.
“Tencent’s efforts to combat counterfeiting regarding the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem were inadequate,” the office said in the report.
The United States is also targeting the Alibaba group and its global platform, AliExpress, as well as China’s Taobao, one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms.
Both are e-commerce platforms that connect consumers around the world with sellers based in China.
Although Alibaba “is known for its anti-counterfeiting processes and systems that are among the best in the e-commerce industry,” the reality is quite different because there is “a spread of counterfeit products on the platform,” the report highlights.
This practice occurs due to failures such as the continuous lack of effective verification of suppliers and verification of repeat offenders.
The Office of the US Government Trade Representative, led by Katherine Tai, notes that while the online sale and distribution of counterfeit and pirated goods is “a growing concern,” physical marketplaces continue to allow substantial trade in counterfeit and pirated items.
Both copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting “cause significant financial losses for US rights holders and legal businesses, undermine crucial US comparative advantages in innovation and creativity to the detriment of US office workers in the report.
Source: TSF
