US adds WeChat and AliExpress to list of “notorious markets”

The US has added WeChat and AliExpress to its annual list of notorious marketplaces for counterfeit and pirated goods.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative said in a statement accompanying the 2021 review report on Thursday that AliExpress, a global company owned by Alibaba, and WeChat, which is owned by Tencent Holdings, are “two important online markets rooted in China that have reportedly facilitated a large number of trademark counterfeiting practices.”

Pinduoduo, one of China's largest e-commerce companies, has been on the list since it was first included in the list in 2019. Alibaba's Taobao, Baidu Netdisk, and another e-commerce company, Dunhuang.com, are still on this list. In addition, nine Chinese physical markets famous for manufacturing, distributing, and selling counterfeit goods were also named.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative said that overall, Alibaba is famous for having the best anti-counterfeiting procedures and systems in the e-commerce industry.

However, the agency said that copyright holders have noticed a marked increase in counterfeit products sold on AliExpress, including both publicly announced counterfeit products and products falsely advertised as genuine.