Does Alibaba Sell Fake Products? What Brand Owners Need to Know

Alibaba Group does not usually sell the products you see on its sites. It runs marketplaces, and independent sellers list the goods. Some of those listings are counterfeit, as on most large marketplaces. Alibaba prohibits counterfeits, says it removes most suspected listings proactively, and runs complaint platforms for rights holders. The US Trade Representative's 2025 review lists Taobao as a notorious market, but not AliExpress or Alibaba.com.

So the useful question for a brand is not whether fakes exist there, but where they appear, how they reach the platforms and what you can do about them. This article covers each of Alibaba's main marketplaces, what Alibaba says it does, what the USTR found and the practical steps that work.

What "Alibaba" actually means

"Alibaba" covers several separate marketplaces with different buyers, sellers and complaint systems. Since November 2023, they have been split between two IP Protection Platforms (IPP).

Marketplace	Who buys there	Complaint platform
Alibaba.com	Businesses buying wholesale, worldwide	Alibaba International IPP (ipp.aidcgroup.net)
AliExpress	Consumers outside China	Alibaba International IPP
Lazada, Miravia	Consumers in Southeast Asia and Spain	Alibaba International IPP
Taobao, Tmall	Consumers in China	Taobao and Tmall Group IPP (ipp.alibabagroup.com)
1688	Businesses buying wholesale in China	Taobao and Tmall Group IPP

This matters because a copy can move through several of them: a supplier offers it wholesale on 1688 or Alibaba.com, resellers pick it up, and single units appear on AliExpress or on marketplaces outside the group.

How copies reach Alibaba's marketplaces

Counterfeits and knockoffs tend to reach these platforms in a few recurring ways.

• Wholesale listings. Manufacturers and trading companies list products on Alibaba.com and 1688, sometimes showing a brand's logo in the photos or the product itself.
• Small-lot resellers. Sellers on AliExpress buy small quantities and resell them to consumers worldwide.
• Hidden branding. Some listings leave the brand name out of the title, crop or blur the logo in photos, or describe the product as matching a known brand, so keyword filters miss them.
• Reused photos. Sellers often copy a brand's official product photos because they sell better than their own. The photos can be the clearest link to the original brand when the name is absent.

Not every lookalike is a counterfeit. A product that copies a design without your trademark may be a knockoff, which is treated differently. Our guide on counterfeits, knockoffs and dupes explains the difference.

What Alibaba says it does

Alibaba International describes its IP protection program as resting on four pillars: notice and takedown, proactive detection and removal with its own technology, support for offline investigations by law enforcement and rights holders, and collaboration with rights holders, associations and government agencies.

The company publishes figures on these efforts. They are Alibaba's own numbers, not independent audits.

Claim	Source and date
96% of complaints submitted to the IPP were processed within 24 hours	Alibaba, September 2024
95% of IP complaints were resolved within one business day across AliExpress, Lazada and Alibaba.com	Alibaba International, as reported in September 2025
AliExpress proactively removed 4.5 times more listings than rights holders removed through complaints	Alibaba International, 2025
97% of potentially infringing listings were blocked before reaching consumers, including proactive and complaint-based removals	Alibaba International, 2025

Alibaba International's IPP home page now links to a 2026 IPR Protection Report. The platform also offers programs for smaller brands, including a MarketSafe program with the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) that provides simplified complaints for small and medium-sized enterprises. Larger brands can join the Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance, which Alibaba said in 2024 had 221 members representing about 1,200 brands.

What the USTR says

Each year, the Office of the US Trade Representative publishes a Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy. The 2025 review, released in March 2026, lists 37 online markets and 32 physical markets. USTR stresses that the list does not make findings of legal violations.

Among Alibaba's platforms, only Taobao is on the 2025 list. USTR's entry is mixed. It notes that stakeholders recognize Alibaba's engagement with rights holders and its investment in anti-counterfeiting tools, and that Alibaba says Taobao is devoting more resources to enforcement. It also reports that right holders still see high volumes of counterfeit goods on Taobao, mixed results with takedowns and demanding evidence requirements, and it says USTR will keep monitoring.

AliExpress, Alibaba.com, Tmall and 1688 are not on the 2025 list. AliExpress was first added in the 2021 review, published in February 2022, and is absent from the 2025 edition. Other Chinese platforms on the 2025 list include DHgate, Pinduoduo and Douyin Mall.

What brands can do

1. Register your trademark where it counts. Rights are territorial. For trademark complaints on Taobao, Tmall and 1688, only marks registered in mainland China can be selected. Our guide to registering a trademark in China explains the routes.
2. Set up the right IPP account. Verify your identity and your rights on the IPP that covers the marketplace, before you need it.
3. Search with photos, not only keywords. Listings without your brand name will not appear in a keyword search.
4. Record each listing before you file. Save the URL, a dated capture, the seller and the price.
5. Start with suppliers. A wholesale supplier on Alibaba.com or 1688 can feed many retail listings. Our guide on reporting an Alibaba.com supplier covers that case.
6. File and follow up. Use the IPP, keep the case number, and check whether the listing or the seller returns.

The full reporting procedure for each platform is in our guide to reporting counterfeits on Alibaba and AliExpress.

Where the manual approach runs out

Checking Alibaba's marketplaces by hand is slow. Each platform has its own search, many listings avoid your brand name, and the same product often appears on several sites under different sellers. Reports then end up in different accounts and inboxes, and it becomes hard to say which listings were removed and which came back.

Evidence is the other constraint. USTR's 2025 entry on Taobao notes that some right holders find the amount of information required to support a takedown demanding. A complaint is easier to support when each listing was captured the day you found it, with the seller's name, the price and the photos that match your own. Without that record, a listing that changes or disappears before you file is hard to prove.

Northmark GoodsHomeProductsSearchesReviewCounterfeitsReporting guidesTeam activitySettingsMLMaja LindOwner

CounterfeitsListings you marked Likely counterfeit, and where each report stands.

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Product:Tarnby Down ParkaCheck which are still onlineExport

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ListingPriority ReportWinter long down parka with fur hood, OEMalibaba.comCN$21.00Found 3×Seller: Tarnby Garment Factory StoreRelisted 1×Priority92Sent · #AB‑2026‑0417Update reportCustom logo down parka fur trim hoodalibaba.comCN$18.50Seller: North Peak Apparel TradingPriority85Not reportedStart reportLong down parka fur trim hood winter coatalibaba.comCN$24.00Found 2×Priority78DraftContinue reportNorthmark style down jacket black, wholesalealibaba.comCN$19.90Gone since 18 SeptPriority64Taken downUpdate report

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How Valigard helps

Valigard searches marketplaces worldwide, including Alibaba.com and AliExpress, with your official product photos, so it finds listings that reuse them even when your brand name is missing. You review the results, mark each listing, and Valigard keeps the evidence: the URL, a saved and timestamped copy of the page, the price, the seller's details and whether the listing was removed or relisted. The Alibaba marketplace page summarizes what it checks.

Valigard does not send reports to Alibaba's IPP: you file there, then log the status and case number. It does not determine with legal certainty that a product is counterfeit, and it cannot guarantee that a listing will be removed.