Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, plans to step up efforts tofight counterfeiting, which the company head says is the biggest obstacle for its futuredevelopment.
The Hangzhou-based company will spend "as much as it can" to tackle counterfeiting problemson its e-commerce websites, said Shao Xiaofeng, Alibaba's chief risk officer.
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Jack Ma (R) chairman of China's largest e-commerce firm Alibaba Group attends a corporate event atthe company's headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province April 23, 2013.[Photo/Agencies] |
The company will set up a committee for intellectual property rights protection this year, whichwill have Lu Zhaoxi, its new CEO starting on May 10, as head and Alibaba's different businessdivision leaders as members, Shao said.
The effort came after the company was removed from the United States' yearly list of theworld's most "notorious markets" last year because of its improvement in reducing counterfeits.
"I am afraid that something we notice but don't prevent today will eventually grow into a cancerfor a company's future development. ... That's why I think I will surely regret it if we don't do wellin fighting counterfeits," Ma Yun, Alibaba's chairman, said at his last news conference beforehe officially steps down as CEO on May 10.
About 2,000 employees at Alibaba are responsible for protecting intellectual property rights.
Last year, Alibaba dealt with 94 million items that infringed copyrights and handed outpunishment 900,000 times, it said.
In the first three months of this year, China's public security organs have dealt with 3,747counterfeit cases, which involved a total value of 24.2 billion yuan ($3.91 billion), said MengQingfeng, head of the Economic Crime Investigation Department of the Ministry of PublicSecurity.
In December, a report from the United States Trade Representative said that Taobao, ownedby Alibaba, "has worked with rights holders to significantly decrease the listing of infringingproducts for sale through its website, and has committed to continue working to streamline itscomplaint procedures to further reduce listings of counterfeit products".
