The Notorious Markets List highlights prominent and illustrative examples of online and physical marketplaces that reportedly engage in, facilitate, turn a blind eye to, or benefit from substantial piracy and counterfeiting. A goal of the List is to motivate appropriate action by owners, operators, and service providers in the private sector of these and similar markets, as well as governments, to reduce piracy and counterfeiting.
USTR highlights the marketplaces because they exemplify global counterfeiting and piracy concerns and because the scale of infringing activity in these marketplaces can cause significant harm to U.S. intellectual property (IP) owners, consumers, legitimate online platforms, and the economy. Some of the identified markets reportedly host a combination of legitimate and unauthorized activities. Others openly or reportedly exist solely to engage in or facilitate unauthorized activity.
The List includes several previously identified markets because owners, operators, and governments failed to address previously stated concerns. Other previously identified markets may not appear in the present List for a variety of reasons, including that: the market has closed or its popularity or significance has diminished; enforcement or voluntary action has reduced or eliminated the prevalence of IP-infringing goods or services; market owners or operators are cooperating with right holders or government authorities to address infringement; the market is no longer a noteworthy example of its kind; or no commenter nominated the market for continued inclusion on the List. In some cases, online markets in the 2016 List are not highlighted this year but improvements are still needed, and the United States may continue to raise concerns related to these markets on a bilateral basis with the countries concerned.
The List is not an exhaustive account of all physical and online markets worldwide in which IP infringement may take place. The List does not make findings of legal violations. Nor does it reflect the U.S. Government’s analysis of the general IP protection and enforcement climate in the countries connected with the listed markets. The List is based predominantly on publicly available information.
Since the release of the 2016 Notorious Markets List (2016 List) on December 22, 2016, some market owners and operators undertook notable efforts to address widespread availability of pirated or counterfeit goods in their markets. During the past year, some previously listed online markets have been the subject of successful enforcement efforts. Some previously listed online markets reportedly took various measures to prevent and deter infringing activities. Such measures include accelerating responses to infringement complaints; entering into licensing arrangements with right holders; developing technology to identify or prevent infringing uses of platforms; and engaging with right holders to develop cooperative procedures.