The two fashion houses, who previously joined brands including Chanel, Nikeand Apple as a part of the coalition, are said to have opted out due to "the inclusion of Alibaba Group to the organisation," reports WWD, "and it occurs as the e-commerce giant's founder and executive chairman, Jack Ma, was announced as the IACC's keynote speaker at the organisation's spring conference in Orlando, May."
While there has been no confirmation from Gucci as to what the catalyst for its departure was, its owner, Kering, has a history of legal entanglement with the Chinese-based e-commerce company. Last May, it pursued Alibaba for the second time in 12 months for allegedly facilitating the sale of counterfeit versions of items from its stable of fashion houses (which also includes Saint Laurent and Balenciaga) through a number of its online platforms, including Taobao. Alibaba insisted it would fight the accusations "vigorously" at the time.
The IACC asserted this week that Alibaba - and a number of other e-commerce platform facilitators - had been welcomed to the coalition as "general members" and said that their inclusion would make the crusade against counterfeits a more cohesive one.
"The IACC stands by its collaborative approach and is committed to lean into the future and lead a coalition of the willing. Alibaba's application for membership was unanimously approved by the IACC's Board of Directors based on their demonstrated commitment and concrete results through the IACC MarketSafe programme," said a statement from the organisation. It added that "by bringing intermediaries to the fold, we are offering our current membership a new way to work with these entities directly while coordinating a collective effort to develop solutions to global counterfeiting and piracy".
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