Global Chinese conglomerate Alibaba is taking legal action against two sellers offering fake Swarovski watches on their online classifieds portal Taobao.com. This is the first time legal action has been taken in China by an e-commerce group against counterfeit sellers.
Alibaba said its governance team detected a Taobao merchant suspected of selling fake Swarovski and later confirmed with rights holder Swarovski that it was a counterfeit.
District police then raided the seller and confiscated more than 125 counterfeit watches, with a value of 2 million renminbi (US$288,733), and another seller peddling fake Swarovski goods was also found during that raid.
Alibaba has filed a lawsuit claiming 1.4 million renminbi (US$202,000) in damages for contract and goodwill violations.
“We will bring the full force of the law to bear on these counterfeiters so as to deter others from engaging in this crime wherever they are,” said Zheng Junfang, chief platform governance officer of Alibaba Group in a statement.
