The staff of the Central Inspectorate for the protection of quality and fraud repression of agri-food products has been strengthened to defend Italian products.
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The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, through its control body, the Central Inspectorate for the protection of quality and fraud repression of agri-food products (ICQRF), renewed on February 23 at Masaf, in the presence of Minister Francesco Lollobrigida and the vice-president and head of global IP enforcement of the Alibaba Group Matthew Bassiur, the agreement with the Alibaba Group to protect the intellectual property of recognized designations of origin and Italian geographical indications, and to strengthen the control of Made in Italy on the Asian market.
To identify fakes, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests has also strengthened, with a dedicated measure in the Budget Law, the operational task force of the Fraud Repression Inspectorate which daily monitors and identifies counterfeit products on e-commerce sites.
The deal with Alibaba to fight counterfeiting has brought remarkable results over the past seven years.
So far, more than 98% of infringing product listings have been reported by ICQRF inspectors and removed from Alibaba's marketplaces, including as part of the business-to-business platform Alibaba.com, which serves over 40 million professional buyers worldwide.
Through the ICQRF , suspicious products (or those that evoke protected geographical indications) are in fact reported directly to Alibaba's intellectual property protection system, through the dedicated portal.
Alibaba also uses artificial intelligence to constantly scan and proactively eliminate infringing product listings to protect the intellectual property of Italian food products.
Collectively, the measures implemented helped remove 96% of infringing listings before a single sale was even made.
98% of reports submitted to Alibaba are processed within 24 hours and sellers are notified that they are violating protected geographical indications.
There are currently 43 Italian geographical indications recognized and protected by Alibaba on its e-commerce platforms.
"The Meloni Government is at the forefront to defend the products of excellence in Italy, in Europe and in the rest of the world from all types of counterfeiting and adulteration", said the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry Francesco Lollobrigida.
"Precisely for this reason in the Budget Law we have strengthened the staff of the ICQRF Inspectorate employed on the front line for the protection of Made in Italy.
"We must guarantee the people who buy the products but also defend the companies from the unfair competition of those who copy and place on the market illegally, with references to our symbols and our tricolor, the best excellence of Italian agri-food".
"The important joint work aimed at protecting Italian Geographical Indications continues with the Alibaba Group", says the Chief Inspector General of the ICQRF Felice Assenza.
"Geographical indications is a fundamental sector for our economy, for which Italy is renowned throughout the world.
"The protocol renewed today bears witness to the importance of teamwork and the effectiveness of collaboration between the public and private sectors; in this sense, I would like to thank Alibaba as a serious and reliable group for the cooperation provided to protect our quality products, in defense of consumers and our agri-food sector".
Matthew Bassiur, Vice-President and Head of global IP enforcement at Alibaba Group, said: "We are extremely proud of our partnership with ICQRFand the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and the results achieved in the last seven years.
"Our collaboration has brought strategic protection to some of the most iconic Italian products in the world, such as Chianti, Prosciutto di Parma and Gorgonzola, just to name a few. We ensure that consumers all over the world receive genuine Italian products.
"We help Italian agri-food producers, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, to bring Italy's unique flavors to international markets. Today Alibaba renews its commitment to work with the Italian government to promote and protect the excellence of "made in Italy" on our platforms".
Rodrigo Cipriani Foresio, General Manager of Alibaba Group for Southern Europe, added: "ICQRF testifies once again our commitment to authentic and quality made in Italy - of which the agri-food sector represents a cornerstone - in which we strongly believe and which we protect on all our platforms with numerous tools, including important agreements with institutional partners.
"We therefore hope that, also thanks to this one-of-a-kind alliance with the Italian government, many other small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, but also historic brands in the Italian food sector, will rely on us to exploit the levers of technology and digital innovation to bring their excellent products around the world, and in China to around one billion Millennial and GenZ consumers who are particularly interested in international products". ■
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