Chinese online marketplace Alibaba has become the first global e-commerce company to join the International Anti Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC). The IACC is the world’s largest non profit organisation that is dedicated to combating product counterfeiting and piracy.

“Preserving the integrity of Alibaba’s marketplaces is a top priority. Counterfeiting is a global, industry-wide issue, and effective collaboration with brands, retailers, trade associations, governments and other industry partners is a key component to our overall success,” said Matthew Bassiur, Vice President and Head of Global IP Enforcement at Alibaba Group.

“IACC membership will further enhance our earnest efforts to forge closer relationships with brands as we continue to explore and implement innovative solutions to address counterfeiting. We strongly value our partnership with the IACC and its members and are proud to be a part of this prestigious coalition.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Alibaba Group as the first e-commerce company to join the IACC and take advantage of our new General Member category. With the pace at which the market is moving, the successful e-commerce platforms will be those who build the right strategic partnerships to ensure safe and trusted marketplaces. We encourage more industry players to join in our efforts,” said Bob Barchiesi, President of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition.

“Alibaba has consistently shown an unparalleled level of commitment over the years towards working with us and our members on IP protection and anti-counterfeiting matters. Having Alibaba as a member will help enrich the ongoing dialogue among IACC members, and enable us to come up with better ways to tackle counterfeiting worldwide.”

Alibaba Group has been working with the IACC since 2013 and was instrumental n the development of the IACC MarketSafe Programme that is a strategic collaboration to help IACC members identify and remove infringing listings on the Alibaba Taobao and Tmail marketplaces via a special removal procedure. The initiative has resulted in a 100% take down rate where companies stand behind their claims. In addition almost 5000 sellers’ storefronts have been closed for selling products in breach of the code and these have been permanently banned from both Taobao and Tmail. More than 160,000 products that have been in breach of the code have been removed.