Alibaba just launched its first major effort to crack down on counterfeit goods

Amazon's chief rival, Alibaba, is on the tech giant's playing field in one new category.

The Chinese e-commerce is lashing out against counterfeit sellers on its platform — a problem Amazon has faced for a long time.

Alibaba on Wednesday sued two fake Swarovski watch sellers on its Taobao e-commerce platform for "contract" and "goodwill" violations. The company claimed 1.4 million yuan, or about $201,000, in damages. Shenzhen police raided the seller and confiscated about 125 counterfeit watches after Alibaba's claim.

The suit is the first legal action ever taken by an e-commerce platform against counterfeit sellers in China, Alibaba said in a press release. Alibaba intends to file suits against other counterfeiters, the company said.

“We want to mete out to counterfeiters the punishment they deserve in order to protect brand owners. We will bring the full force of the law to bear on these counterfeiters so as to deter others from engaging in this crime wherever they are,” Zheng Junfang, Alibaba's chief platform governance officer, said in a statement.

Between 20 to 80 percent of branded goods on Alibaba are estimated to be counterfeit, the Wall Street Journal reported in June. Alibaba denied that claim at the time.

Alibaba used data to identify the counterfeit Swarovski merchants in this case, and then bought a watch from the seller in a test-buy program.

That strategy is similar to the program Apple used to identify counterfeit versions of its products being sold on Amazon. Apple filed a lawsuit against a counterfeit seller on Amazon in October in which it alleged that 90 percent of the Apple chargers sold on Amazon were fake.

Amazon has taken some steps to fight counterfeiters on its own platform. In August, Amazon started charging third-party sellers fees to carry select brands.