The U.S. government has labeled China's top search engine, Baidu, and a accepted e-commerce platform "notorious markets" connected to sales of plagiarized and fake goods.
The two companies were amongst 33 websites or public markets in China, Russia, India and additional countries that the U.S. Trade legislative body office said Monday make easy trade in music, clothing and other goods that are false or unauthorized copies.
China is a leading basis of fake and counterfeit goods in spite of repeated government crackdowns. Beijing launched its latest enforcement attempt in October and says it hopes to attain lasting results.
The USTR statement said Baidu links to websites that sell pirated or imitation goods while external merchants use Taobao, an e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group Ltd., to sell infringing items. It said the list was not a legal judgment but an effort to call concentration to abuses and encourage governments to end them.
Full story
