Alibaba allows consumers to report fraud on online channel

China-based ecommerce company Alibaba has opened a new online channel for consumers to report suspicions of counterfeit goods or fake shops offline.

Previously, consumers were only enabled to report fake products they found on the company's online shopping platforms, such as Taobao. However, with the launch of the new reporting channel, users can also provide evidence of issues at real shops. Asia One reports that when commodities sold in a shopping mall are suspected as counterfeit or infringe IP rights, the evidence – including pictures and the store's location – can be submitted through the reporting channel opened on Alipay, the company's mobile payment application.

Alibaba will then use its technologies to do the data matching and send the evidence to the IP owners and trademark registrants in order to verify if the reported goods are counterfeit or not. Moreover, as the company is closely cooperating with judicial authorities, infringement incidences can be passed to them once they are verified by the trademark owners.