The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released the findings of its 2022 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy (the Notorious Markets List).
The Notorious Markets List highlights online and physical markets that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.
USTR first identified notorious markets in the Special 301 Report in 2006. Since February 2011, USTR has published annually the Notorious Markets List separately from the Special 301 Report, to increase public awareness and help market operators and governments prioritize intellectual property enforcement efforts that protect American businesses and their workers.
“The widespread trade in counterfeit and pirated goods harms the economic security of American workers and undermines our work to craft equitable and inclusive trade policy,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai. “The Notorious Markets List is an important tool that urges the private sector and our trading partners to take action against these harmful practices.”
Reflecting the Biden-Harris Administration’s worker-centred trade policy, the 2022 Notorious Markets List’s issue focus section examines the impact of online piracy on U.S. workers. The section describes how online piracy can impact the wages, residuals, pensions, and health care benefits that workers in the creative industries depend on and how combatting online piracy requires coordination between relevant actors in order to effectively address the rapidly shifting delivery methods of infringing content.
The 2022 Notorious Markets List also identifies 39 online markets and 33 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.
This includes continuing to identify the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem as one of the largest platforms for counterfeit goods in China. Other listed markets in China include online markets Aliexpress, Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo, and Taobao, as well as seven physical markets located within China that increasingly use brick-and-mortar storefronts to support online sales of counterfeits.
The complete 2022 Notorious Markets List can be found here.
