The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has formally asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to include Facebook, Instagram, Alibaba.com, AliExpress, and DHgate in the 2026 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy. In comments submitted October 7, AAFA said the five platforms were selected through a member ranking poll from 38 candidates. While Alibaba and DHgate have appeared on the list before, Facebook and Instagram have so far "avoided accountability," according to the letter.
AAFA, which represents more than 1,100 apparel and footwear brands, said the platforms enable the sale of dangerous goods. The group tested 39 counterfeit products and found 41% failed U.S. and international safety standards, detecting chemicals such as phthalates, lead, formaldehyde, and nickel. At least 25% of the failed products were purchased on or marketed through Meta-owned platforms. The letter cited a November 2025 Reuters investigation estimating Meta's internal documents showed 15 billion "higher risk" scam advertisements daily, generating about $7 billion in annualized revenue.
The group also documented enforcement gaps: Meta's Brand Rights Protection tool caps takedown requests at 100 pieces of content or accounts, and one member measured a mean of 22 days to initiate a removal on Facebook versus three days on Instagram. AAFA requested seller and advertiser verification, a publicly shared repeat infringer policy, and a connection between WhatsApp and its Brand Rights Protection tool. It said excluding domestic platforms grants "an implicit license to profit from the sale of counterfeit products" and that platforms must face "equivalent liabilities" to brick-and-mortar businesses. The letter noted that Alibaba and AliExpress have some removal mechanisms but said Alibaba's two-tier repeat infringer system may require nine violations before termination, and that AliExpress was fined 550 million euros by the European Commission in July for breaching the Digital Services Act.