Louis Vuitton has joined forces with Taobao Marketplace, probably the most popular online shopping platform in China, to fight against counterfeits sold on the internet.
Taobao Marketplace, launched by Alibaba Group, has signed a memorandum of understanding with LV, one of the largest luxury brands in Paris. It is the first agreement that the company has reached with such an international brand, combining efforts to fight fake goods and to protect intellectual property rights.
Taobao, similar to eBay, is a C2C platform for small businesses or individuals to open online retail shops. Its target customers are mostly from mainland China and Hong Kong. Under this agreement, those shops that are spotted selling fake LV products will be shut down as part of the preventive measures.
“Such collaboration is invaluable to us in terms of preventing the manufacture, transport and sales of counterfeit goods, online as well as offline,” said Valérie Sonnier, global intellectual property director of Louis Vuitton.
“We are pleased to formalize our commitment and partnership with Louis Vuitton through the signing of this MOU,” said Ni Liang, senior director of Internet security at Alibaba Group. He said that the two parties expect to have deeper cooperation on the reporting, examination and supervision of counterfeits.