Guidance

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights on e-commerce stores

Updated 8 October 2025

The rapid growth in e-commerce over the past decade has increased consumers’ choice and access to goods online. This has led to consumers turning to major e-commerce stores including Alibaba, Amazon, eBay and Facebook to buy everyday goods.

Though almost all e-commerce taking place on these stores is legitimate, they can also be abused by those seeking to sell and distribute counterfeit and pirated goods. This undermines legitimate business, can be damaging to rights holders and can be harmful to consumers.

Many of the global e-commerce stores have developed specific tools to allow intellectual property rights (IPR) holders to report and remove infringing listings to protect their brands.

How do these tools work and where can I find them?

Alibaba

If you are an intellectual property rights (IPR) holder or its authorised representative, and you wish to report instances of IPR infringement to Alibaba, you can do so using:

1. the Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (Alibaba International) Intellectual Property Protection (IPP) Platform for Alibaba’s international marketplaces (AliExpress, Alibaba.com, Lazada and Miravia), and
2. the Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG) IPP Platform for its domestic marketplaces (Taobao, Tmall and 1688.com). This not only helps to remove infringing listings but also improves Alibaba’s proactive monitoring algorithms, which learn from brand information provided by rights holders.

Your first step is to register an account on the Alibaba International or TTG IPP Platforms (or both, since registration is separate for the two). You will be required to provide proof (i) of your identity, such as a business licence or POA, and (ii) your IPR, such as registration certificates.

Once registered, you will be able to:

• submit notice and action (N&A) complaints, including supporting documents

• view and respond to counter notices from sellers

• access statistics on your enforcement activities, such as the percentage of successful N&A complaints, and the number of successful counter notices from sellers

Alibaba has many other helpful resources for rights holders, including:

• IPP Platform Handbooks for both Alibaba International and TTG;

• specialised SME resources, including:

  • SME help centres for both Alibaba International and TTG,
  • Simp’Ali, available on the TTG platforms, which streamlines the IPR complaint process for small business owners, and
  • the MarketSafe® Programme, run in conjunction with the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, which provides SMEs with practical support and a simplified complaint mechanism;

• direct collaboration with Alibaba on IPR enforcement, including through the Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance, and the BrandSafe Programme, available on the Alibaba International platforms.

More information about Alibaba Group’s IPR protection programmes can be found in the latest IP annual reports for Alibaba International and TTG.

Amazon

If you are a rights holder or an authorised representative of those rights, and wish to report instances of IP infringement to Amazon, you can do so by using the Amazon Brand Registry tool. This also requires registration and will gain you access to a set of tools to help manage and protect your IP rights in the Amazon store. Brand Registry is free and over 350,000 brands have already enrolled. On average, brands registered with Brand Registry are finding and reporting 99% fewer suspected infringements than before the launch of Brand Registry.

To register you will need a registered trade mark and provide evidence of ownership, or that you are authorised to operate on the owner’s behalf. Once registered you will be able to use search tools to search content by images, keywords or Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs), to identify and report infringements of your products.

There are also additional benefits afforded by registering including:

• having more control over Amazon product pages using your brand name
• powerful search and report tools identify cases of infringement
• submit reports to take-down infringing listings
• access to a global support team which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Amazon have since introduced three more services, Transparency, Project Zero, and IP Accelerator.

Transparency is an item-level tracing service where brands serialize each unit they manufacture with a unique code. Amazon then scans these codes and verifies the authenticity of the product before it reaches a customer. Customers can also scan the Transparency code via a mobile app to confirm authenticity.

Project Zero empowers brands to help Amazon drive counterfeits down to zero by combining brand knowledge with machine learning. Using the self-service counterfeit removal tool in Project Zero, brands can instantly remove counterfeit from the store. This information is fed into Amazon’s automated protections to allow more effective prevention of counterfeit listings in the future.

IP Accelerator connects businesses with a curated network of trusted IP law firms which provide high-quality trademark registration services at competitive rates. Amazon provides businesses using IP Accelerator with access to brand protections and brand building features in Amazon’s stores, to better protect and grow their brand months, or even years, before their trademark registration officially issues.

eBay

If you are a rights holder and wish to report instances of IP infringement to eBay, you can do so by using eBay’s Verified Rights Owners (VeRO) programme. VeRO is a notice and takedown programme which allows you to report instances of alleged trade mark, copyright, design and other IP infringements. More information is available on their customer service page.

To submit a notice of infringement, you must fill in a Notice of Claimed Infringement (NOCI) form and email it to vero@ebay.co.uk. From here their customer service team will help you become a member. More information on eBay Protect your IP with VeRO is available.

Participating with VeRO entitles you to many benefits including:

• assistance from eBay staff
• gain access to identifying information about eBay users
• rapid response by eBay in ending listings reported by you as allegedly infringing
• dedicated priority email queues for reporting alleged infringements

Facebook Marketplace

Meta Platforms, Inc., through its Facebook Marketplace platform, has taken many steps to protect intellectual property (IP) rights, including by employing proactive enforcement measures aimed at removing potentially infringing content prior to any rights holder report – and frequently before the content even gets posted. In addition to these proactive measures, Meta has also developed industry-leading specialized IP reporting tools to assist rights holders in their reporting experience.

Indeed, if you are a rights holder or authorized representative, there are several ways to report potential IP infringement on Facebook Marketplace:

• online IP Reporting Forms - Copyright, trademark, and counterfeit reporting forms are available to all rights holders, including small businesses and individuals.
• in-product reporting (or on-platform reporting) - Rights holders or their authorized representatives can report content or listings in real time by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner and clicking ‘report’
• IP Reporting Center - The Intellectual Property Reporting Center (IPRC) allows rights holders who log into a Facebook, Instagram, or Business Manager account to report content that violates their intellectual property rights and keep a record of the reports they’ve submitted. The IPRC greatly improves the reporting process for reporters who regularly use Meta’s IP reporting forms by adding a layer of security and efficiency to the process
• IP Reporting API - The Intellectual Property Reporting API allows rights holders and their authorized representatives to programmatically report content that violates their IP rights, and to retract such reports when needed. They can use this API to automate and streamline the reporting of infringing content by filling out the same fields as Meta’s IP reporting forms in a secure and trusted way
• Brand Rights Protection - The Brand Rights Protection tool (BRP) is a specialized IP reporting tool that allows rights holders to efficiently report content that they believe infringes their intellectual property rights. Rights holders can also use BRP to submit business impersonation and scam Ads claims

Rights holders can complete an application for the Brand Rights Protection tool in Meta Business Suite. Once you have been granted access to Brand Rights Protection, you can:

• search for content and accounts that misuses your intellectual property or impersonates your brand
• send a takedown request to remove infringing content
• use reports and metrics to track the results of your takedown requests
• add reference images to help automatically detect potentially infringing content

Meta has many other helpful resources for rightsholders:

• IP Help Centers on Facebook and Instagram
• Meta’s Anti-Counterfeiting Guide
• business resources for building a brand protection strategy
• best practices for Brands Rights Protection
• Meta Brand Safety and Suitability Center

More information about Meta’s IP protection program can be found in the Intellectual Property Transparency Report.

Shein

If you are a rights holder or an authorised representative of those rights and wish to report instances of IP infringement on SHEIN Marketplace, you can do so by submitting an IP notice on the SHEIN IP Notice portal.

To file an IP complaint, please provide details on the type of intellectual property, specify your relationship to the rights owner, describe the nature of the infringement, and submit relevant product links or SKUs details along with supporting evidence. Contact details and a digital signature confirming the accuracy of the information are also required.

Once you have submitted the notice, SHEIN Marketplace will process it and revert to you as quickly as possible. For additional details, please visit the Intellectual Property Notice section of the SHEIN website.

For more information on SHEIN IP Policies, please visit Marketplace IP Rules.

Temu

If you are a rights holder or an authorised representative of those rights, and wish to report instances of IP infringement to Temu, you can do so by using the Temu IP Protection Portal. To submit a report, you will only need to register for a general user account and 3 complete steps.

Once registered, you will enjoy the following benefits:

• streamlined and user-friendly takedown process: A 3-step submission process for infringement reports

• efficient handling process: Solution-oriented global support teams to handle your reporting

• one login for Global IP Infringement Reports: Manage reports across all the sites through one account

Additionally, if you wish to report trade mark infringement on Temu by only submitting trade mark certificates once, you can do so by registering your trade marks with the Temu Brand Registry Tool. Through this portal, trade mark owners can also report suspected infringing activities. If any infringing activities are identified, trade mark owners can use the “complaint” feature, which enables them to easily track the progress and outcomes of their complaints.

Temu prioritises IP protection to ensure the long-term success of its business. Temu regularly releases updated rules and guidelines that sellers must follow in order to continue listing their products. For more information, you can refer to the Temu IP Policy, which is regularly updated to ensure the effective enforcement of IP rights protection measures.

TikTok Shop

If you are a rights holder looking to report IP infringement on TikTok Shop, you can utilise TikTok’s Intellectual Property Protection Centre (IPPC) tool. The IPPC is a comprehensive platform designed to safeguard and enforce your IP rights in TikTok’s e-commerce ecosystem. The IPPC tool enables brands to find and report both product and content in any of the countries TikTok Shop operates in. It offers a streamlined system for managing complaints, allowing rights owners to detect, notify, track, and handle takedown requests, as well as monitor appeals. Both the IPPC tool and an alternative webform are available online and accessible directly through the TikTok app.

The benefits you will enjoy once registered with IPPC:

• user-friendly and expeditious takedown process

• centralised IP rights repository: Store all your IP rights in one secure vault, so you only need to upload your information once, rather than with each individual report.

• streamlined handling process: Our solution-focused global support teams are dedicated to efficiently managing your reports.

• unified access for global IP infringement reports: Manage all your reports from various sites through a single account.

If you need to report intellectual property infringements related to user-generated content on TikTok, please use the reporting links Copyright - Trademark/Counterfeit .

If you need to report intellectual property infringements related to Ads on TikTok, please use the Report IP infringement in Advertising form.

For additional details on the governance measures implemented across TikTok, please visit our Transparency Centre.