French luxury group Kering has decided to drop a case against Chinese Alibaba regarding the sale of counterfeit items. Both companies will now join forces to combat counterfeit sales.
Joint taskforce
Back in 2015, Kering filed a suit against Alibaba in the United States, because it felt the platform insufficiently fought against the slew of counterfeit items from brands like Saint Laurent and Gucci in its online marketplaces. Over the past few years, Alibaba has taken several steps against counterfeit products and has now also been able to convince Kering of its intentions, which is why the latter will now drop the case and join its “taskforce” against counterfeit.
Kering is not the only company to have complained about Alibaba’s counterfeit sales. Several members of the American Apparel & Footwear Association previously expressed their dismay and the company was even blacklisted for a while.
Alibaba decided to tackle counterfeit sales as soon as it gained in size outside of China, because the country has a questionable reputation when it comes to counterfeit sales. Such behavior is seriously frowned upon in regions like Europe and the United States. Founder Jack Ma has also asked the Chinese government to combat counterfeit more stringently. Alibaba has also launched collaborations with brands like Adidas, Nike and luxury group LVMH.
