United Daily News (UDN), one of the primary Taiwanese news groups, recently reported on the global “2023 Notorious Markets List” recently announced by The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The list including 39 online markets and 33 physical markets where piracy is rampant. Among them, China’s online markets Taobao, WeChat, Pinduoduo (U.S. branch name Temu), and seven physical markets (including Shopee) were named again.
These Notorious Markets are considered to be involved in or to be abetting a large volume of trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy. This year’s list focuses on the potential health and safety risks posed by counterfeit goods, which use poor quality materials and are manufactured without supervision or safety controls, resulting in products that are substandard, ineffective or dangerous. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that counterfeit and pirated goods harms workers, consumers and small businesses, and ultimately harm the U.S. economy. She added that crackdown on trade in these goods is important for economic growth.
This year, seven Chinese physical markets were named on the list, including Huaqiang Electronic World, Luohu Commercial City, Beijing Silk Street Market, and Wuai Market. Although Shopee, headquartered in Singapore, has invested heavily in the past year to enhance anti-counterfeiting capabilities, there still remain a large number of counterfeit goods on the platform, and problems such as slow response times remain.
Source: UDN, January 30, 2024
https://udn.com/news/story/6809/7743640