The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has released the findings of its 2025 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy (the Notorious Markets List). The Notorious Markets List highlights online and physical markets that reportedly engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy.

“With the United States co-hosting the FIFA World Cup, we are particularly attuned to sales of counterfeit merchandise and illicit streaming of sports broadcasts,” said Ambassador Jamieson Greer. “Not only do such activities amount to intellectual property theft, they also harm consumers, such as through purchasing substandard goods that can present health or safety concerns or downloading malware when visiting sites engaged in these activities.

This year’s Notorious Markets List’s issue focus section examines piracy of live sports broadcasts and the challenges of protecting copyright in the digital age. The global nature of sophisticated copyright piracy operations requires international cooperation for effective enforcement. USTR calls on trading partners to undertake policy reforms to strengthen intellectual property protections, such as joining and fully implementing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, which provide key protections for copyright and related rights in the digital environment.

The 2025 Notorious Markets List identifies 37 online markets and 32 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy. The Notorious Markets List highlights both widespread and evolving trends in counterfeiting and piracy, and identifies a wide variety of sites, including e-commerce and social commerce sites, as well as ‘bulletproof’ hosting providers, streaming sites, or other piracy-enabling sites for copying and distributing content.

USTR first identified notorious markets in the Special 301 Report in 2006. Since February 2011, USTR annually publishes the Notorious Markets List, separately from the Special 301 Report, to increase public awareness and help market operators and governments prioritise intellectual property enforcement efforts that protect American businesses and their workers.

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Categories: Articles, Business, Content, Piracy, Policy, Regulation, Rights

Tags: Office of the United States Trade Representative, piracy, USTR