《星战》假货泛滥 阿里继续无视警告

西方再次将矛头指向中国最大电商阿里巴巴的假货泛滥问题，这次形势仍然不乐观。

最新的证据是，阿里巴巴旗下类似eBay的销售平台淘宝网上正在热卖《星球大战》相关商品，从服装、光剑、角色人偶、钥匙扣、印有片中帝国冲锋队的靠枕、黑武士面具一应俱全。一个电影角色人偶仅售2美元，说明并不是获得《星球大战》所有者迪士尼公司授权的正规产品。本周一，在淘宝网上搜索可以找到6.1万件《星球大战》相关商品。

去年阿里巴巴准备在纽约上市时，曾向西方投资者保证假货问题已得到控制，于是投资者大多忽视了这个问题。可是，最近的一些新闻报道和美国官方机构贸易代表办公室（USTR）的警告显示，阿里巴巴对假货已经失控。

从2008年开始，淘宝网一直是著名的造假天堂，直到2012年USTR才将淘宝网从“恶名市场”名单上除名。但就在上周，USTR又向阿里巴巴发出警告，要求其升级品牌所有者投诉假冒商品的流程，并且暗示如果淘宝不这么做可能重新被列入黑名单。

USTR要求阿里巴巴简化投诉假货时的品牌认证流程，公开打击售假商家的程序，并加快假货下架的进度。

同时，媒体也再次聚焦阿里巴巴的假货问题。《福布斯》今年11月的封面文章直指淘宝网售假问题难解。彭博新闻社最近发表的一篇报道题为“阿里巴巴的2016：竭力甩掉假货恶名的一年”。

上次阿里巴巴因为售假备受关注还是在今年春季。当时，拥有古驰、圣罗兰等奢侈品牌的巴黎云开集团将阿里巴巴告上法庭，诉称阿里的搜索引擎误导消费者，如果在阿里的平台上输入类似“古驰”的关键字，消费者会被引导至售价仅为约5美元的假冒手袋，而不是标价795美元的正品。

面对外界的指责，阿里巴巴显然有备而来。阿里称，假货在中国非常普遍，意思是这不是阿里巴巴能解决的问题，还表示已与1000多家大品牌合作，加快剔除假货的进程。阿里巴巴在声明中写道：“本集团致力于保护知识产权，打击假冒伪劣商品。假冒商品是全球电子商务企业共同面临的问题，我们正竭尽所能应对，与假货斗争到底。”

实际上，阿里巴巴本周一刚刚宣布聘请辉瑞公司前副总裁，主管全球知识产权执行部门，主要负责制定打击假冒商品的措施并直接向集团总裁汇报工作。

这是好现象。不过，淘宝网上众多《星球大战》相关假货也证明，去年阿里巴巴上市创造了全球最高融资记录以来，假货问题并未彻底解决。而且随着淘宝网规模持续增长，假货问题可能比以往还要严重。（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

校对：夏林

The Star Wars merchandise on Taobao is proof that Alibaba’s problem with fakes hasn’t gone away since its record-setting IPO and, as Taobao continues growing, is probably bigger than ever.

The West is again focusing on Alibaba’s problem with counterfeits, and again, it’s not a pretty picture.

The latest evidence is the supply of Star Wars products being sold on Taobao, Alibaba’s eBay-like marketplace. Clothes, light sabers, action figures, key chains, stormtrooper pillows, and Darth Vader masks are all being sold for prices—the action figures go for $2—that suggest they are not official goods from Disney DIS 0.28% , the franchise’s owner. A search on Taobao for Star Wars merchandise on Monday produced 61,000 listings.

The issue of counterfeits was largely cast aside in Alibaba’srunup to an initial public offering in New York last year, when Western investors were assured the problem was under control. However, a string of recent news reports and a warning from the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative offer evidence that the problem is far from under control.

Four years ago, in 2012, the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative took Alibaba’sTaobao marketplace off a blacklist of marketplaces known for being havens of counterfeits, which it had been on since 2008. But last week the same office issued a warning to Alibaba to upgrade its processes for brand rights’ holders to issue complaints about counterfeits being sold on Taobao or it intimates it risks going back on the “Notorious Markets List.”

It called on Alibaba to simplify the process for brands to complain about fakes, make public its takedown procedures and quicken the process of removing fakes.

Meanwhile, the press is again focusing on Alibaba’s counterfeits. Forbes devoted a cover story in November to what it called Taobao’s intractable counterfeit problem. Bloomberg just published a story titled, “Alibaba Heads Into 2016 Struggling With Knock-Off Reputation.”

The last time Alibaba attracted so much attention for fakes was this spring, when Paris-based Kering SA, which owns luxury labels Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent among others, filed a lawsuit against Alibaba, alleging the company’s search engines steered customers who input keywords like “cucci” to counterfeit Gucci bags selling on Alibaba’s platforms for around $5 compared to the listed $795 price.

Alibaba hasn’t exactly been caught flat-footed. Today, it points out that counterfeits are pervasive in China’s economy—meaning it’s not just Alibaba’s problem to fix—and says it has relationships with more than 1,000 big brand owners to hasten the takedown of counterfeits. “Alibaba Group is committed to the protection of intellectual property rights and the fight against counterfeiting. Counterfeiting is an issue all global e-commerce companies face, and we are doing all we can to address and fight it,” the company said in a statement.

In fact, today it also said it hired a former Pfizer Inc. executive as head of its global intellectual property enforcement group, who will work on anti-counterfeiting measures and report to the president of Alibaba Group.

Good thing. The Star Wars merchandise on Taobao is proof that Alibaba’s problem with fakes hasn’t gone away since its record-setting IPO and, as Taobao continues growing, is probably bigger than ever.