Taobao.com, Coach Form Internet Alliance Against Chinese Fakes

Coach, a leading American designer and maker of luxury lifestyle handbags and accessories, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Taobao.com, the Chinese Internet shopping subsidiary of Alibaba Group, to prevent the sale of fake Coach products on this Chinese website.

This is reportedly the first time for Coach to cooperate in this manner with a Chinese e-commerce platform to solve problems brought by counterfeit goods and unauthorized sales channels on the Internet.

Under the MOU, the two parties agree on the implementation of strict measures to inspect and delete information of fake Coach products and to prevent the reappearance of such situations. In addition, they will continue to popularize anti-counterfeit knowledge to Internet users while implementing close cooperation with the related law enforcement departments in China.

Founded in 1941, Coach has emerged as America’s preeminent designer, producer, and marketer of fine accessories and gifts for women and men including handbags, business cases, luggage and travel accessories, wallets, outerwear, eyewear, gloves, scarves, fragrance and fine jewelry. With its multi-channel distribution strategy, the company had developed nearly 500 Coach stores in the United States and Canada by July 2011. By the end of its first fiscal quarter in 2012, the number of its stores in Hong Kong, Macau, and mainland China reached 71.