Chinese Agency Softens Criticism of Alibaba on Sales of Fake Goods

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It was only two days ago that a Chinese government regulator chastised the Alibaba Group, the e-commerce giant, for failing to curb the sale of fake goods on its sites.

Now the two appear to have made up in a hurry.

The regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said on Friday that its leader, Zhang Mao, had met with Alibaba’s executive chairman, Jack Ma, to discuss cooperating to fight counterfeiting and protect consumers.

The agency made its criticism of Alibaba in a report released on Wednesday. But it is now backing away from the findings of that report, calling it a recounting of a July meeting between the two sides and not an official document with legal weight.

It is a surprisingly quick turn of events for both Alibaba and the Chinese agency, given the public criticism that the S.A.I.C. delivered to one of its country’s most important Internet players.

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  The Chinese government stayed quiet about the proliferation of fake goods on Alibaba’s marketplaces for several months, particularly in the period leading to the company’s $25 billion stock market debut last fall.

That was despite longstanding accusations of sales of counterfeit goods — fake wine, knockoff handbags and falsely branded electronics — on Alibaba’s platforms. Only in 2012 did the United States trade representative remove the company’s Taobao online marketplace from a “notorious markets” list of counterfeit goods sellers

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/b...-alibaba-on-sales-of-fake-goods.html?ref=asia