The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released its annual Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, highlighting online and physical markets that engage in duping shoppers and intellectual property theft.
“Commercial-scale copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting cause significant financial losses for U.S. right holders and legitimate businesses, undermine critical U.S. comparative advantages in innovation and creativity to the detriment of American workers, and pose significant risks to consumer health and safety,” the USTR wrote.
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The 2025 Notorious Markets List “highlights prominent and illustrative examples of online and physical markets that reportedly engage in, facilitate, turn a blind eye to, or benefit from substantial piracy or counterfeiting,” it added, stating that the goal of the list is to prompt appropriate action from the private sector and foreign governments.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) was “pleased to see USTR recognize existing concerns across e-commerce and social media sites…this is an important step to help raise awareness of the scourge of dangerous counterfeits,” the group’s president and CEO, Steve Lamar, said.
AAFA is among the American industry groups that submits input to USTR about the markets that perpetuate the selling of dupes and other illicit products to the detriment of U.S. brands, retailers and consumers.
“AAFA members are working tirelessly to fight counterfeits across e-commerce and social commerce platforms, detracting energy and resources from their ability to innovate and employ. This is a form of corruption and fraud that haunts Americans everywhere, and something we simply can’t afford to allow to flourish,” said AAFA’s senior director of brand protection, Jennifer Hanks.
“In addition to USTR’s emphasis on global marketplaces, all domestic platforms should institute more proactive, preventative measures to address dangerous counterfeits, fraudulent advertisements and ways to take consumers off platform to fraudulent websites,” Hanks recommended.
Lamar added that “[i]ncreased attention is crucial, along with more oversight in online commerce.”
“As an industry that faces among the highest threats of IP theft, we are particularly frustrated at how counterfeiters are the main winners in a chaotic and costly tariff climate. Counterfeiters can arbitrarily underprice dangerous goods as they bypass the checks and balances of authentic, responsibly sourced, goods,” he added. “Legitimate brands invest millions to make sure products are responsibly made and ethically sourced. Counterfeiters can largely avoid those extra costs.”
USTR highlighted the “ongoing concern” from IP rights holders about the proliferation of counterfeit sales facilitated by e-commerce platforms and social media sites. While many online retailers and marketplaces have taken steps to address the marketing of counterfeits, others still haven’t put the requisite measures in place—like notice and takedown procedures, identity verification and policies to punish offenders—that would curb the behavior.
“In 2025, as with in previous years, several submissions highlighted trends that spread through social commerce sites encouraging consumers to seek out counterfeit goods. Right holders noted the increasing popularity of social media influencers who review, promote, and share links to counterfeit luxury products, intentionally driving their viewers to purchase counterfeit goods through pages linked in their social media profiles,” the report said, highlighting a current trend that some stakeholders say has gripped markets like TikTok Shop, Facebook and Instagram.
While the agency remains vigilant against these types of schemes, it wrote that many e-commerce and social commerce platforms have “taken solid steps” to initiate anti-counterfeiting practices and to root out bad actors using circumvention techniques.
“Several platforms filed public submissions this year outlining their implementation of new or enhanced anti-counterfeiting tools, including educational campaigns, increased identity verification requirements, and faster and more transparent notice-and-takedown processes,” the report said. Some firms have also invested more heavily in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to scale up efforts like text and image screening to better detect fakes and fraudsters.
“As e-commerce platforms and industry associations continue to become more transparent and forward-leaning with their anti-counterfeiting practices, an opportunity exists to collaboratively establish industry best practices, create standard counterfeit-related measurements, and find ways to counteract the ever-changing methods of those that manufacture, distribute, and sell counterfeit goods,” USTR wrote. “Reducing the availability of counterfeit goods online should be viewed as an industrywide goal.”
