The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition has announced its suspension of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's membership. The move is believed to have been influenced by pressure from current members of the coalition due to Alibaba's alleged lax attitude towards listing fake goods. However, it was revealed that Alibaba's membership has been suspended because there were irregularities when the company was being admitted.

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The coalition stated that the suspension of Alibaba's membership is due to the failure of the group's president to informing the board of members about a potential conflict of interest. The group President Robert Barchiesi was found to have owned Alibaba stock since its listing in 2014. Apart from this, Barchiesi's son Bassiur currently works as the vice president of global intellectual property enforcement at Alibaba.

In a letter sent to its members, the coalition said that such conflict of interest remains under the wrap owing to "weakness in our corporate governance procedures." Consequently, the group has scrapped the new class of membership which allowed Alibaba to join the coalition. The decision is going to affect two other companies, which were singed up following the introduction of the new rules.

The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition is an influential group which has more than 250 members. The group lobbies with US officials and Congress. After the coalition granted Alibaba membership, various companies such as Tiffany, Michael Kors, and Gucci America quit the group.

France's Kering Group said in a US court filing that Alibaba is aware of fake listings on its site and profits from it. Alibaba, on the other hand, called the case "wasteful litigation."

TagsAlibaba, Gucci, Michael Kors, Tiffany, The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition