US trade office removes Tencent’s WeChat from ‘notorious’ counterfeit sellers list
WeChat was among six online Chinese platforms and nine bricks-and-mortar sellers added to the counterfeit goods list in 2022
Tencent Holdings’ super-app WeChat was removed from a list of “notorious” sellers of counterfeit goods by the US trade office, days after the defence department designated the tech giant as a “Chinese military company”.
“Despite the complex challenges of our day, this outcome demonstrates that engagement and understanding can lead to progress,” Danny Marti, head of public affairs and global policy at Tencent, said in a statement on Thursday.
Marti said he was “pleased” to see recognition of Tencent’s commitment to intellectual property (IP) protection. “Our international team takes pride in fostering a robust and effective IP environment and continues to collaborate closely with respected IP organisations globally,” Marti said.
WeChat was among six online Chinese platforms and nine bricks-and-mortar sellers added to the list in 2022. At the time, the USTR accused the Tencent app of becoming an increasingly convenient conduit for buying imitation products through its “seamless” links to third party e-commerce sites selling fake goods.
ByteDance-owned Douyin Mall, the e-commerce platform of TikTok’s Chinese sister app, made the list for the first time in 2024 for the “rocketing” increase in the amount of counterfeit goods and its “ineffective” reaction to take them down, according to the USTR. Other Chinese e-commerce sites, including Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao, PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo and Chinese wholesale marketplace Dhgate, remained on the latest list, along with Baidu’s cloud storage service Baidu Wangpan.
