WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group remains on the U.S. government’s annual list of “notorious markets” that peddle counterfeit products.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says that Alibaba’s on-line marketplace Taobao.com continues sell “high volumes” of pirated goods, according to companies that say they’ve been victimized. It also says Alibaba has “ineffective” procedures for removing counterfeit products.
The trade office also added Saudi Arabia to its yearly “priority watchlist” of countries that don’t adequately protect intellectual property, citing its failure to shield pharmaceuticals from counterfeit competition and the continued piracy of movies and television shows on the BeoutQ service. Also on the priority list this year are Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Canada and Colombia this year were removed from the blacklist.
