USTR Removes Foreign Amazon Sites From Notorious List

Amazon’s foreign sites were removed from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 2021 Notorious Markets List (see 2108270030 and2101140046), which was released Thursday. The platform’s British, German, French, Italian and Spanish sites were included in the 2020 report. The report “highlights online and physical markets that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.” China is the top country of origin for which U.S. Customs and Border protection seize counterfeit goods, the report said. The report flagged for the first time China’s AliExpress and the WeChat e-commerce platform. The report also flagged China’s Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine. DHgate, Pinduoduo and Taobao also made the list. The report draws attention to Singapore-based Fmovies, also known as Bmovies and BFlix, as “one of the most popular websites in the world for streaming pirated copies of popular movies and TV shows.” Russian websites RuTracker, Flvto and MP3juices also made the list. The report credits Brazil’s Operation 404 for its 334 piracy website takedowns, and India for taking the torrent site TamilRockers offline. The report highlights Vietnam’s ongoing investigation of Phimmoi.net, and credits Thailand for seizing more than 100 broadcasting and streaming devices, which were used for the Fwiptv pirating service. The report focused on “the adverse impact of counterfeiting on workers involved with the manufacture of counterfeit goods,” the USTR said. The USTR recommended “labor inspectors, labor-focused organizations, workers’ rights associations, and others target counterfeit manufacturing facilities for Enforcement.”