USTR urged to include domestic platforms in Notorious Markets List
In a letter to USTR, AAFA president and chief executive officer Stephen Lamar wrote that the latter looks forward to working with the former to update the NML process to include domestic platforms to holistically level the playing field for all businesses, protect legitimate commerce, valuable intellectual property (IP) and to continue the fight against dangerous counterfeits.
Over the years, the NML has grown silent on the problems associated with counterfeits that are widely available on US-headquartered third-party marketplaces. Despite efforts by several stakeholders, including AAFA, to nominate US-headquartered platforms, the NML since 2020 has not included any such nominations, the letter noted.
AAFA has urged the USTR to strengthen the annual NML processâ€'the annual review that identifies platforms that engage in, facilitate, turn a blind eye to or benefit from piracy or counterfeitingâ€'to include any such platform, irrespective of its headquarters. The NML has grown silent on the problems related to counterfeits available on US-headquartered third-party marketplaces, it noted.
This is unacceptable for several reasons, the letter stressed. First, some of the US-headquartered platforms that are invited to escape scrutiny are among the most trusted and sought-after third-party e-commerce marketplace in the United States.
'Under normal circumstances, they will be magnets for counterfeiters—as many consumers can tell you they are. That attraction grows exponentially when the NML ignores those platforms. The mere notion that attention is shifted away from US-headquartered platforms is cheered by counterfeiters as implicit license to increase their business there,' the letter said.
Moreover, this lack of attention relaxes the pressure on those platforms to become better at stopping and removing counterfeits, it noted.
Second, a popular narrative has advanced in the past few years that the NML is exclusively reserved for foreign activity.
'This is a senseless notion as counterfeiters themselves know no restrictions. Moreover, as the first Trump Administration repeatedly showed, US-headquartered platforms themselves have foreign domains, and connect foreign counterfeiters directly to US consumers. This helps establish the second type of foreign connection that currently exists,' AAFA said.
'Even if we accept the notion that the NML is process aimed at foreign activity—a quaint concept that is now absurd—these US-headquartered entities should already be eligible for nomination and submission. If we keep trying to enforce this distinction with no difference, we signal to the world that we are willing to overlook a severe IP problem we are also creating and experiencing,' the letter added.
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