Taking down fake listings on Taobao and Tmall (通知删除)

A brand owner can have a fake listing on Taobao, Tmall or JD taken down by sending the platform a notice with preliminary evidence of infringement. If the seller replies that it does not infringe, the listing is restored unless, within 15 days, the brand tells the platform it has complained to the authorities or sued.

Someone is selling fakes of your product on a Chinese shopping platform, under your brand name and with your photographs. A notice to the platform can get the listing taken down. Whether it stays down is decided later, by a 15-day period that starts when the seller’s answer reaches you. For a company outside China, a notary and an apostille can take most of those days.

What does a takedown notice to Taobao, Tmall or JD need?

Preliminary evidence of infringement (构成侵权的初步证据), which is the one item the E-Commerce Law itself requires (Article 42).^⁠[1] On receiving it, the platform must promptly delete or block the listing, cut the link, or end the seller’s transactions, and forward your notice to the seller.^⁠[1] The Supreme People’s Court’s guidance to judges says a notice generally carries four things:^⁠[2]

1. Proof of your right, and your true identity.
2. Information that locates each listing precisely, such as its link.
3. Preliminary evidence that the listing infringes.
4. A written guarantee that the notice is true.

Every platform must also set its own intellectual property rules,^⁠[1] and each runs its own complaint portal with its own form. The four items are the legal floor, and the form decides the format.

Do we need a Chinese trademark registration to file one?

Yes, for a notice based on a trademark. The exclusive right to a mark in China comes from registration with the trademark office (CNIPA). It covers only the registered mark, on the goods it is registered for (Trademark Law, Article 56).^⁠[3] A registration at home gives a Chinese platform nothing to act on, unless it has been extended to China through Madrid. A Chinese registration for clothing does not reach fake handbags.

The seller need not be the counterfeiter: selling goods that infringe a registered mark is itself an infringement.^⁠[3] A notice can also rest on a patent or a copyright, since the law gives the right to any intellectual property owner.^⁠[1] If the brand is not yet registered in China, that comes first: why China protects whoever files first sets out the rule, and a trademark filing starts with a search of the register.

What happens after we send the notice?

Step	Who acts	When
Notice with preliminary evidence 通知	You	Any time
Listing removed or blocked; notice forwarded to the seller	The platform	Promptly (及时)
Declaration that the listing does not infringe, with preliminary evidence 不存在侵权行为的声明	The seller	No deadline set by law
Declaration forwarded to you, with notice that you may complain to the authorities or sue	The platform	On receiving it
You tell the platform you have complained or sued	You	Within 15 days of the declaration reaching you. Delay from notarisation and authentication does not count, up to 20 working days in all
Listing restored, if you have not told the platform	The platform	Promptly, once the period ends

The platform must publish the notices and declarations it receives, and what it did with each.^⁠[1] A seller who files a declaration in bad faith and so gets the listing restored can be ordered to pay you punitive damages.^⁠[4]

The seller has answered. What can we do within 15 days?

Tell the platform that you have complained to the authorities or started a lawsuit. Nothing else keeps the listing down.^⁠[1] The complaint can go to the market regulator, which can order the seller to stop selling.^⁠[3] A court can also order the platform to take a listing down as a preservation measure, on your application.^⁠[4]

The 15 days are counted from the day after the declaration reaches you. A last day that falls on a public holiday moves to the day after the holiday ends.^⁠[5]

A power of attorney for a Chinese lawyer, signed outside China, takes effect only once a local notary certifies it and it is legalised (Civil Procedure Law, Article 275).^⁠[6] Since 7 November 2023, a document from another Apostille Convention state needs an apostille in place of the Chinese embassy’s legalisation.^⁠[7] The company documents a court also wants are listed in documents from abroad for a Chinese court, and the power of attorney itself in a power of attorney for China.

Say a Danish kitchenware brand holds a Chinese registration covering cookware. It sends Tmall a notice on 26 October 2026 and the listing comes down. The seller files a declaration, and Tmall’s forwarded copy reaches the brand on Tuesday 3 November. Fifteen days, counted from 4 November, end on Wednesday 18 November.^⁠[1,5]

The brand decides to sue, and its Chinese lawyer needs a power of attorney signed in Copenhagen, then notarised and apostilled. If the notary and the apostille hold that up, the delay does not count against the brand. The period still cannot run past 20 working days, which is Tuesday 1 December, with no Chinese public holiday in between.^⁠[4]

What if our notice turns out to be wrong?

You answer for the seller’s loss, and for twice the loss if the notice was malicious (E-Commerce Law, Article 42).^⁠[1] A notice sent in good faith that turns out to be wrong does not make you liable, provided you can prove the good faith.^⁠[4]

The Supreme People’s Court lists what a judge may treat as malice. It includes forged or altered proof of the right and a false infringement comparison. It also includes sending a notice knowing the right’s status is unstable, failing to withdraw a notice known to be wrong, and sending wrong notices repeatedly.^⁠[2]

Does the platform answer for fakes it leaves up?

Yes. A platform that does not act promptly on a notice shares liability with the seller for the damage that grows after it.^⁠[1] One that knows, or should know, that a seller infringes and does nothing shares liability for all of it. The intellectual property authority can also fine a platform that fails to act. The fine is RMB 50,000 to 500,000 if it does not correct the failure in time, and RMB 500,000 to 2 million where the case is serious (Article 84).^⁠[1]

The case that set the standard came from Tmall. In February 2015 Weihai Jiayikao, which held a Chinese patent for an infrared cooking device, complained through Taobao’s IP portal about a Tmall seller. It attached the listing links, an infringement analysis and a claim comparison table. Tmall rejected the complaint, asking for each infringing feature to be marked against the claims with pictures, and for order numbers.^⁠[8]

The courts held that a notice carrying the owner’s identity, proof of title, the listing’s address and preliminary evidence was valid, and that Tmall should at least have forwarded it to the seller. Tmall was held jointly liable for RMB 50,000 of the RMB 150,000 awarded. A platform’s complaint rules, the court said, should not become a legal obstacle to an owner enforcing its rights.^⁠[8] The Supreme People’s Court made it Guiding Case 83 in 2017, before the E-Commerce Law took effect.

Is the E-Commerce Law about to change the takedown rules?

Not in the draft published so far. The State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce released a 20-item draft amendment on 4 July 2026 and took comments until 4 August.^⁠[9] None of its items touches the articles on notices, declarations and the 15 days, or the fine for a platform that fails to act.^⁠[9] Among other changes, it would make a platform jointly liable with a company it hands its platform duties to. It is a draft, and its text can still change before it is adopted.

The Trademark Law changes on 1 January 2027.^⁠[10] Which version governs a registration or a dispute that straddles the date is set out in old or new Trademark Law after 1 January 2027.

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