AliExpress hit with record $629M fine for counterfeit and illegal goods

I compare online marketplaces to ISPs: we don't expect ISPs to filter the traffic going over their network to make sure it complies with all laws, because that would be impossible. Having actually run a marketplace in a previous life, it's a similar situation. How is a marketplace with millions of products supposed to vet each individual product? About the only thing a marketplace can do is provide some kind of customer feedback mechanism, make sure customers can get refunds easily and quickly, and kick off merchants and buyers that have too many complaints (though they will probably just register again under a different name).

Honestly, it's kinda overdue. If a normal shop or business sold as many counterfeit or illegal good as AliExpress (or Amazon), they'd be shut down and the owners/board charged. The fact these companies seem to be able to just get away with having no quality control at all and ignoring every law in sight because they're eCommerce 'marketplaces' is absolutely insane to me.

Hopefully something similar happens to Amazon as well.

I've known a few people that had their products copied by china and sold on amazon, ignoring patents. Same with copies of books. I've even bought a couple items just to find out they are knock offs. Its a big issue on amazon.

unsafe goods are a real problem. counterfeit are not as long as you know its fake before you buy it, and thats true most of the time on these platforms. cut the fine in half.

China like "Let us starve the EU a little bit on all crucial electronics components so they can overthink their decision".

Difficult to negotiate if you are all in on a Asian supply chain to get your stuff done.

I could not give less of a shit about counterfeit goods, but of course for safety there understandably are rules and those rules should be enforced.

In general, though, Aliexpress has a lot of goodwill with me; I buy stuff from there with some regularity and personally have seldom made a bad buy. I'm still rocking my decade old €10 polarized sunglasses, my 2018 €25 soldering iron, screwdriver and so forth.

I've had a few bad experiences... massive delayed deliveries and products that are just DOA. I've stopped buying anything through them and will just pay the extra from Amazon or other domestic options.

Tiktok Shop needs to be next. They openly allow sellers to advertise 1 TB SD cards for $15 each, and many more scams just like it. When you report any of the listings, you get an automated "Doesn't violate our terms." notification. I have started opening up complaints with the BBB, FTC, my state's Attorney General.

title should be in euros (€550 million), so its clear the bloc responsible. and as usual, almost every one of the """criteria""" is completely arbitrary if you read the full press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_...

new tax base unlocked! woohoo

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-fin... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48977201)

Now do Amazon