E-commerce site Alibaba sued counterfeiters after finding out that two unidentified vendors had allegedly used the company’s website to sell fake watches.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. issued the lawsuit after vendors allegedly used the company’s Taobao website to sell counterfeit Swarovski watches weeks after U.S. regulators said the site was a haven for knockoffs, according to Bloomberg.
Alibaba is seeking over $200,000 in damages, according to Alizila.
This lawsuit represents the first time a China-based e-commerce site has taken legal action against counterfeiters, according to Bloomberg.
“We want to mete out to counterfeiters the punishment they deserve in order to protect brand owners,” the company said in a statement, according to Bloomberg. “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.”
“Selling counterfeits not only violates our service agreement, it also infringes on the intellectual property rights of the brand owner, puts inferior products in the hands of consumers and ruins the hard-earned trust and reputation Alibaba has with our customers,” said Jessie Zheng, Alibaba Group’s chief platform governance officer, per Alizila.
Alibaba filed the case with the Shenzhen Longgang District People’s Court, Bloomberg noted.
The company said it gave the Shenzhen Luohu District police information regarding the counterfeiting phenomenon, Reuters noted.
After that, police raided the watch seller and confiscated more than 125 watches that were reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In October, the company said in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative that “At Alibaba, counterfeit goods are absolutely unacceptable,” Bloomberg noted. “We do not tolerate or condone those who steal other people’s intellectual property.”