(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma met with China’s quality regulator and pledged to fight fake goods, as the e-commerce giant tries to quiet claims it has failed to prevent counterfeiters from using its sites.
Alibaba would work with the Chinese government to block knock-offs from its Taobao Marketplace and other online malls, Ma told Zhi Shuping, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to a statement posted today on the agency’s website. The company would use data collected from users and cloud-computing to aid the effort, Ma said.
The meeting comes less than three weeks after another regulator, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, issued a scathing “white paper,” accusing Alibaba of tolerating unlicensed merchants who sell fakes online. After Ma met with the head of
SAIC Jan. 30, that agency released a statement describing the critical report document as a meeting memo that lacked “judicial effect.”
Cao Lei, director of the Hangzhou-based China E-Commerce Research Center, said Alibaba must demonstrate deference to all its regulators. “Jack Ma is trying to find more support, and also show his willingness to cooperate,” Cao said by phone.
Alibaba rose 0.4 percent in New York trading on Monday to close at $86 before the statement was released. The stock has declined 17 percent this year.

Global Brand

After Monday’s meeting with Ma, Zhi, the quality chief, said Alibaba was a global brand and should lead efforts to ensure quality and protect consumers’ interest, according to the statement.
During a Feb. 2 appearance in Hong Kong, Ma said the company had resolved the dispute with SAIC. “We don’t want to be misunderstood by the world that we are not transparent,” he said at the time. “We don’t want to be misunderstood that Taobao is a platform for selling fake products.”
Building a reputation as a source of quality goods is a key challenge for Alibaba as the company pushes beyond China to reach 2 billion customers worldwide. While Ma has pledged close cooperation with regulators, he has also promised to share user data with Chinese authorities only if they’re investigating terrorism or other crimes.
Alibaba has worked to get rid of counterfeits, saying it removed 90 million listings for products that breached intellectual-property rights before its record-breaking initial public offering in September. The company said in December it had spent $161 million since the beginning of 2013 to block counterfeit products and protect consumers.