French manufacturers on Thursday decried as
“slanderous” comments by e-commerce giant Alibaba founder Jack Ma that
Chinese
knock-offs are better quality than branded originals.
After giving the impression that Alibaba was combatting counterfeiting,
Ma’s comments “run counter to efficient cooperation given that they are
misleading, even slanderous,” said the Unifab association that includes
luxury
houses LVMH, Kering and Hermes.
“The problem is that the fake products today, they have better quality,a
better price than the real product, than the real names,” Ma said in a
speech
at Alibaba’s investors day in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou on
Tuesday.
“They’re the same exact factories, the same exact raw materials, but they
do not use that (brand) name,” he added.
Alibaba has come under fire in recent years for the ease at which
knock-off
goods are available to consumers on its online Taobao marketplace.
Taobao is estimated to hold more than 90 percent of the domestic
consumer-to-consumer market, while the company’s Tmall platform is believed
to
have over half of China’s business-to-consumer transactions.
China’s factories have traditionally churned out products for branded
companies at low cost, but with the rise of e-commerce platforms such as
Alibaba, they are increasingly finding opportunities to market their own
goods
online directly to consumers.
Senator Richard Yung, who heads up France’s national anti-counterfeiting
committee, said that “Jack Ma’s irresponsible comments, which appear to be a
provocation, justify Alibaba’s suspension from the International
Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC)”.
Alibaba has been collaborating with the IACC to remove an average of
10,000
listings of counterfeit goods from Taobao and Tmall per month, according to
the IACC’s website.
Indicam, Italy’s anti-counterfeit association, said “a statement
comparing
fake and real and putting them on the same level is out of line.” (AFP)