WASHINGTON – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released the findings of its 2023 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.
“The trade in counterfeit and pirated goods harms workers, consumers, and small businesses, and ultimately hurts the U.S. economy,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai. “This year’s Notorious Markets List is significant because it underscores the potential dangers of counterfeit goods and why robust enforcement to combat trade in these goods is important to growing our economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
As a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s worker-centered trade policy, this year’s Notorious Markets List’s issue focus section examines the potential health and safety risks posed by counterfeit goods. The section describes how counterfeit goods are often made of lower-quality materials and are manufactured outside of regulatory oversight or product safety controls, leading to substandard, ineffective, and often dangerous products. The section also identifies a need for more effective criminal and border enforcement against the production, import, export, and distribution of counterfeit goods.
The 2023 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 China-based e-commerce and social commerce markets Taobao, WeChat, DHGate, and Pinduoduo, as well as the cloud storage service Baidu Wangpan. Other listed markets include seven physical markets in China known for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of counterfeit goods.
Background
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 U.S. workers and businesses.
The Notorious Markets List does not constitute an exhaustive list of all markets reported to deal in or facilitate commercial-scale copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting, nor does it reflect findings of legal violations or the U.S. Government’s analysis of the general intellectual property protection and enforcement climate in the country concerned. Such analysis is contained in the annual Special 301 Report issued at the end of April each year.
USTR initiated the 2023 Notorious Markets List Review on August 24, 2023, through publication in the Federal Register of a request for public comments. The request for comments and the public’s responses are online at www.regulations.gov, Docket number USTR-2023-0009.
The complete 2023 Notorious Markets List can be found here.
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