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Washington is tightening the noose in its fight against counterfeiting. The US Trade Representative’s office, the USTR, has blacklisted “notoriously reputable marketplaces”, the social network WeChat and the retail platform AliExpress. These two major Chinese digital flagships are accused of promoting the sale of counterfeit products and infringing intellectual property rights.
For the US Commerce Bureau, China is the main country of origin counterfeit products seized by US Customs.
Last year, the USTR listed 42 online marketplaces and 35 physical marketplaces that traded these illegal goods. From now on, WeChat, the most popular Chinese social network, and the AliExpress retail platform join the blacklist.
Among the most counterfeited products, we still find perfumes and branded clothing, but the US Commerce Bureau points to a new practice among online sellers of counterfeits. They use hidden links in social media ads to sell their products.
Although blacklisting these sites in the US does not result in financial penalties, it does affect their reputation. Tencent, the Chinese internet giantowner of WeChat, denounces the American decision and says that the fight against counterfeiting is at the heart of its activity.