Greenhills, Shopee Among Notorious Markets for Piracy, Counterfeit – USTR

Many Filipinos are familiar with Shopee and Greenhills Shopping Center – the former an e-commerce company that has made online selling and buying a breeze for vendors and shoppers alike, and the latter a mall in San Juan, Manila, that is a usual go-to for one-of-a-kind finds and niche electronics services.

Recently, however, the e-commerce company and shopping center figured on the Office of the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) 2022 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, which was released on Jan. 31.

The USTR first named notorious markets on the Special 301 Report in 2006 and has gone on to annually publish the Notorious Markets List separately from the report. The list aims to "increase public awareness and help market operators and governments prioritize intellectual property enforcement efforts that protect American businesses and their workers."

Although the list is not an exhaustive record of all markets that reportedly conduct copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting on a commercial level, it underscores specific online and physical markets that the USTR believes epitomize counterfeiting and piracy concerns on the global scale.

Moreover, these markets' "scale of infringing activity... can cause significant harm to U.S. intellectual property (IP) owners, workers, consumers, and the economy."

The review also noted that some of these markets allegedly host both legal and unauthorized activities, while others "openly or reportedly exist solely to engage in or facilitate unauthorized activity." 

Shopee, Greenhills Shopping Center

One of the online markets the USTR identified is Singaporean e-commerce company Shopee, which is used widely in the Philippines. According to the review, right holders have reported widespread counterfeits across Shopee, as well as contradicting prerequisites for requesting takedowns and slow responses.

Last year, Shopee piloted an initiative for its brand protection portal to improve its communication with right holders.

Meanwhile, the USTR listed Greenhills Shopping Center among its notorious physical markets. Many Greenhills' stalls and storefronts, as per the review, are known for selling a wide variety of counterfeit items, from electronics and perfumes to watches, shoes, accessories, and fashion items.

"Right holders report enforcement activity in the form of warning letters and subsequent suspension of business, but the targets of enforcement often evade such efforts by moving the location of their stalls," the review read.

In terms of action taken, the USTR said that the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) and the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) met with Greenhills Shopping Center's management in April 2022. Under a Memorandum of Understanding with IPOPHL, the Philippine Retailer's Association, of which Greenhills is a part of, vowed to combat counterfeiting with a "zero-tolerance approach."

The USTR added that Philippine enforcement agencies, along with mall management, have kept up with holding counterfeit retailers accountable, with the National Bureau of Investigation seizing US$1.4 million-worth of counterfeit items from Greenhills vendors last April 2022.

To read the USTR's 2022 Notorious Markets List Review in full, go here.