Alibaba sues suspected Mars pet food counterfeiter

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group has revealed it is suing a Taobao merchant suspected of selling counterfeit Mars pet food.

The counterfeiter is accused of selling RMB 2.67 million ($386,400) worth of goods on online shopping marketplace Taobao.

Alibaba is suing the merchant for violation of contract and goodwill.

In January, WIPR  reported that Alibaba had sued two alleged online counterfeit sellers who were selling fake Swarovski watches and asked for RMB 1.4 million.

Alibaba claimed that this was the first instance of an internet platform taking a counterfeiter to court in China.

This time, Alibaba has also asked the court to compel the seller to publish a written apology in several newspapers and online publications for a week.

Jessie Zheng, chief platform governance officer of Alibaba, said: “The current legal penalty on counterfeiting in China is too light to deter counterfeiters from manufacturing and selling fake goods to pursue huge profits.”

Last May, in a joint exercise with Mars, Alibaba’s platform governance team detected a merchant suspected of selling counterfeit cat food under Mars’s Royal Canin brand on Taobao.

A bag of cat food bought from the merchant in a test purchase was spot checked by Alibaba and was later confirmed by Mars to be counterfeit.

Earlier this week, Jack Ma, the executive chairman and founder of Alibaba, urged Chinese legislators to toughen laws and penalties for counterfeiting in the country.

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