L’articolo sul magazine tedesco TextilWirtschaft che cita DcP nella tutela di brand online

Di seguito riportiamo, tradotto in inglese, l’articolo firmato da Tobias Bayer e pubblicato sul magazine tedesco “TextilWirtschaft”, disponibile anche online in lingua originale.

Alibaba: Fashion and forger

With two screens Aron Park goes on counterfeiters hunting. On the left shimmers an Excel spreadsheet. In it, he has meticulously recorded every detail: Item number, value of goods, followed by the offense. “Trademark injured” or “forgery” is written there. On the right you see the Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba website. He clicks through an input form to report the violation. Many boxes, many options. He moans softly. Written evidence that there really is a forgery are required there. “That is unnecessary,” he grumbles. “When I point other platforms on a fake, then do I need seconds. On the other hand, the Alibaba will take much longer. ”

Park works for Digital Content Protection (DCP) . The Milanese agency seeks out for Italian fashion houses brand pirates on the Internet. It monitors more than 60 e-commerce platforms across the globe. Most busy it keeps the Chinese Alibaba Group, to which the online platforms Taobao, Tmall and 1688 belong. Alone on Taobao discovered Park and his colleagues in April some 4,000 problematic ads that jackets of a known premium manufacturer were touted. Many of them turned out to be fakes.

The online company Alibaba, which combines with Tmall, Taobao and Alipay Chinese counterparts from Amazon, Ebay and PayPal under one roof, dollar sales over 15 billion achieved (page 24), more than 420 million active customers has, in the stock market more than 180 billion dollars worth, and now is to catch customers in Europe, is suspected to be a counterfeiter’s paradise. Those looking to Taobao longer finds ever an iPhone from Prada, although Prada makes no phones. Or Rivoli Bag from Louis Vuitton for amazing US $ 150, although they usually around 2,500 dollars cost.

No wonder that the fashion industry is suspicious. The luxury group Kering about has sued the Chinese in the United States. The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana bucks. “It is hard to imagine that an Italian supplier sells its goods on a platform at the same time the fakes are offered for sale,” says Camera-President Carlo Capasa. If there Alibaba really are serious about the fight against counterfeiters, then takes a fall of sales, says Claudio Marenzi, President of Apparel and Textile Association Sistema Moda Italia: “It is said that the sale of counterfeits contributes significantly to sales of Alibaba. As long as the platform has no loss, there is no basis for a dialogue for me. ”

Harsh words, the Alibaba founder Jack Ma do not be discouraged. He is accustomed resistance. Crazy Jack, as he was nicknamed, had problems with math in school. The fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken refused his application. As an entrepreneur, he tried a translation agency and a yellow pages service. Without good fortune. Only the third attempt was successful. And how. Alibaba dominates the e-commerce in China. Compensates Taobao, with its many small traders a bustling marketplace in Beijing, so Tmall is the online equivalent of a luxury shopping center. Big brands are here present with its own stores. About AliExpress sell Chinese businesses to an international clientele, especially in Brazil and Russia. will be managed most purchases with Alipay, the payment system of Alibaba.

For the European expansion Ma has opened offices in Paris, Milan and Munich. Sébastien Badault, formerly of Amazon and Google, heads the France-dependance. Rodrigo Cipriani Foresio made a career in TV empire of Silvio Berlusconi and ensnared now the Italian companies. Germany boss Terry von Bibra (page 26). Everything is ready for expansion – if not for the forgeries (see comment on page 14). In January 2015, the Chinese competition authority SAIC published a test report to Alibaba. Only 37% of the goods on Taobao are authentic, a sample sale found. In May 2015, the luxury group Kering lawsuit against Alibaba submits in New York. In May 2016, the anti-counterfeiting alliance International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC), which belong to brands like Burberry and Nike, Alibaba invites again. She had taken the group only one month earlier than the first online marketplace operator.

Alibaba defends itself and presents itself as plagiarism hunters are on the recent IACC Conference in Orlando, USA, notified President Michael Evans against critics: “If you do not inviting us in the fight against counterfeiters, then we invite you to us participate. We have no rivals in this battle, but only a common enemy: the counterfeiters, “said the former Goldman Sachs banker.

Evans lists what Alibaba does everything. He mentions the so-called Good Faith Takedown program, be removed faster with the fakes, and the Big Data IP Enforcement program, are evaluated with the vast amounts of data. He mentions Matthew Bassiur who previously worked for the US Department of Justice and Apple and YTD is responsible for brand protection at Alibaba. He joins together numbers. 120 million suspicious ads were removed in 2015 without being asked on Taobao. For 15 Mill. US dollars Alibaba have shopped goods to check whether it concerns originals. We have paid 12 dollars Mill. To damaged customers. “We want to be not only the world’s number one in e-commerce, but also in the fight against brand pirates.”

For DCP in Milan still reigns skepticism. According to investigators Internet Park Alibaba does not lack instruments. Rather, everything is too bureaucratic. For an agency such as DCP could control the mass of sale displays, they must automate as much as possible. But this is problematic in Alibaba. “One gets the impression that it is intentionally made difficult.”  Park shares the office with two colleagues. One program the searches. A colleague checked the results. She pays attention to the pictures. If the logo is wrong? Blurred? The final list of lands at Park informing Alibaba. Here it is exhausting.

TRADEMARK boss Bassiur recently traveled to Milan and listened to the wailing. A working group will now eliminate the many obstacles. Meanwhile give more vendors to the temptation from the Far East. The watchmaker Locman about opening soon a shop on Tmall. “For us, Alibaba is a strategic partner,” says company president Marco Mantovani.

Tobias Bayer