Dive Brief:

• The American Apparel & Footwear Association, which represents more than 1,000 clothing and shoe brands, sent another open letter to Alibaba Group founder and chairman Jack Ma over what it says is a lack of progress combating the sale of fakes through the company’s e-commerce sites. 

• The group says that Alibaba’s process for complaints and requests to remove counterfeits is difficult to navigate and that makes addressing the problem an onerous task, and calls on the company to make the process easier and faster.

• While Alibaba and other marketplaces have come under fire for sales of counterfeit goods, U.S. courts have generally ruled that monitoring and tracking down counterfeits is up to the brands hurt by the practice.

Dive Insight:

In response to this letter, as in most of its communications on this issue, Alibaba insists that it’s dedicated to combating sales of fake goods on its sites. But the AAFA is keeping up the pressure, and says that the company’s complaint process makes progress quite difficult.

A more streamlined process would certainly help Alibaba fight the problem, so perhaps ultimately the company will step up its efforts and more adequately address the concerns of brands. Certainly, it must. Not only is Alibaba facing pressure from Chinese and U.S. regulators and lawsuits and demands like these from brands, but also the company will never achieve much traction here if it can’t shake its reputation for being a purveyor of fakes.

“Our brands tell us that they are having a dramatic lack of success, and all you have to do is go on the website and see the proliferation of counterfeits every day,” AAFA CEO Juanita Duggan told the Wall Street Journal.