(LEAD) China's AliExpress vows investment to protect intellectual property of S. Korean brands on its platform

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SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Yonhap) -- Chinese e-commerce platform AliExpress said Wednesday it plans to invest 10 billion won (US$7.6 million) in South Korea over the next three years to better protect the intellectual property rights of South Korean brands on its platform.

Ray Zhang, head of the Korean unit of AliExpress, made the remarks as the Chinese e-commerce company has been under fire for allegedly selling counterfeit goods on the platform.

Zhang had been grilled by South Korean lawmakers over such allegations during a parliamentary government audit session in September.

Zhang told reporters that AliExpress will set up a Korean-language intellectual property protection portal to offer quality assurance-related services for South Korean customers.

He also pledged that products sold on the platform that are deemed counterfeit will be refunded without paperwork.

In addition, AliExpress will create a team tasked with protecting copyrighted South Korean brands on the service, Zhang said.

AliExpress has seen its South Korean user base more than double to 6.13 million as of October from 2.97 million a year ago, becoming the third-largest e-commerce platform after local platforms Coupang and 11Street.

According to Zhang, AliExpress has deleted 977,151 suspected copyright infringement products from the platform in South Korea over the past two months as part of efforts to prevent counterfeit trading on the service.

The number of deleted products during the period is more than twice the some 420,000 counterfeit products discovered in major South Korean online shopping malls from 2019 to 2022.

odissy@yna.co.kr
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