U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has commended Alibaba.com for acting quickly to remove hundreds of listings of counterfeit D’Addario musical instrument strings from the business-to-business (B2B) website, just days after the New York Democrat called Alibaba.com a “rogue website” that should be shut down by the U.S. government.
The controversy erupted last week after Schumer, a vocal critic of China’s trading practices, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging an investigation into Alibaba.com as part of wider crackdown on the sale of counterfeit products in the U.S. Schumer also contacted the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, asking for increased pressure on the Chinese government to shut down factories producing fakes.
Schumer’s office was responding to a complaint by Farmingdale, New York-based D’Addario, the world’s leading guitar string maker, that Chinese manufacturers were illegally using their brand to sell sub-grade strings all over the world. D’Addario contacted Schumer’s office for help after a request to Alibaba.com to stop fake string sales on the website went unanswered.
Alibaba Group spokesman John Spelich said the initial lack of response was due to a miscommunication. “As soon as we were alerted to that miscommunication, we remedied the situation as soon as we could,” Spelich said. Alibaba.com subsequently removed 421 listings for counterfeit D’Addario products being manufactured in China.
In a Dec. 10 press release, Schumer praised Alibaba.com “for taking swift and immediate action,” adding that “it is important that retailers do everything in their power to block the sale of counterfeit goods that wind up costing American jobs. Alibaba did the right thing and has pulled down all advertising for knock-off D’Addario strings.
Spelich stressed that Alibaba.com, the world’s largest B2B website, serves 2.5 million small businesses in the U.S., including a large number in New York. “As a platform that connects buyers and sellers, we are dedicated to protection of intellectual-property rights. We have a takedown procedure that is substantially similar to our peers in the U.S. and Europe and is also consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,” he said.
To help lay the issue to rest, Alibaba.com sent a peace offering to Schumer’s office: a box of genuine D’Addario guitar strings, along with a note that said “we hope this gift helps strike the right ‘chord’ on future collaboration regarding IP protection issues.
