By Sherry Qin

The U.S. Trade Representative has added an e-commerce platform owned by TikTok's parent to its "notorious markets" list, naming the entity as one of more than 70 online and physical markets potentially engaging in or facilitating counterfeiting and piracy.

The office of the USTR said in a statement dated Wednesday that the updated list reflected "the evolving nature of counterfeit sales in China" by including ByteDance's Douyin Mall for the first time along with several Chinese entities previously on the list, including Alibaba's Taobao, fast-growing online retailer Pinduoduo and the cloud-storage service of tech company Baidu, among others.

Douyin Mall, the e-commerce platform of Douyin--the Chinese version of ByteDance's TikTok platform--made the list for the first time due to a "'rocketing' increase in the amount of counterfeit goods on the platform," the USTR said.

WeChat, the popular messaging app of Chinese tech giant Tencent that had been on the list since 2021, didn't appear this year, suggesting its removal.

The list, published annually since 2011, identifies online and physical markets that allegedly engage in "substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy," with an aim of raising public awareness and helping market operators and governments "prioritize intellectual property enforcement efforts." The list doesn't reflect findings of legal violations, the USTR said.

ByteDance didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Danny Marti, head of public affairs and global policy at Tencent, said he was "pleased to see recognition of Tencent's commitment to intellectual property protection."

Citi analyst Alicia Yap viewed Tencent's removal as "a positive read-through on Tencent's product quality." More importantly, the move suggests that U.S. regulators aren't systematically targeting specific companies like Tencent, she added in a research note. That means the tech giant could eventually succeed in its current effort to obtain removal from a separate Pentagon list of Chinese companies with alleged military ties released earlier this week.

Write to Sherry Qin at sherry.qin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 09, 2025 05:00 ET (10:00 GMT)

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