Alibaba Group has called for stricter laws and heavier penalties against product counterfeiting. The company said such illegal activities have caused damage to the manufacturing and business environment, and hurt the interest of consumers and merchants. “To date, many of those involved in counterfeiting have escaped sanction, shown by an extremely low conviction rate,” the company said in a statement. “Ambiguities in the law have meant that enforcement officers have found it difficult to classify and quantify cases of counterfeiting let alone commence legal proceedings.” Alibaba said it has identified 4,495 leads on possible counterfeiting cases in 2016, each involving a value of goods exceeding the statutory minimum of CNY50,000 for criminal investigation. Of these, only 1,184 cases were taken on by the relevant authorities, which resulted in just 33 convictions, or 0.7% of the total. Some 37 out of the 47 convicted individuals involved in counterfeiting crimes were granted probation, it added. “The current regulations are no longer able to cope with the need to fight counterfeiting,” Jessie Zheng, Chief Platform Governance Officer of Alibaba, said. “A clear message was sent to society that there will be serious legal consequence to drunk-driving, creating an effective deterrent to this criminal behavior. The same should apply to counterfeiting,” she said.