Target (TGT), Best Buy (BBY), Home Depot (HD) Aims At Alibaba (BABA)

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY), Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) and others have banded together to fight Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), a report from David Faber on CNBC reveals.

According to Faber, the lobbying group that includes Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) have even released an advertisement that paints the Chinese company as a competitor that takes advantage of loopholes in laws and its scale to compete with other retailers.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) should be made to pay more taxes, the advertisement said.

“Alibaba is China’s largest online retailer. Their IPO was the biggest in U.S. history. Now, they’re coming to America. Thanks to the online sales tax loophole, this Chinese company will decimate out local retailers. Unless Congress ends special tax treatment for Alibaba and other online giants, Main Street will never look the same. Tell Congress, “close the online tax loophole before it closes Main Street,” the ad said.

Of course, this argument from the group is not new and is not only being used against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA).

In the past, companies such as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY), Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) and Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) have banded together and supported groups like Alliance for Main Street Fairness to lobby the Congress to close the very same loophole mentioned in this ad.

This was then a move to stem the rise of giants such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), the Chinese giant which owns some of the biggest and most valuable brands in China, it seems, is large enough a threat to have these companies working together.

Nonetheless, Faber noted in his discussion with Jim Cramer that Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) and Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) may not have to worry this much in the short term as he believes Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is a long way from becoming dominant in the U.S., if it at all does become that.

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) shareholders includes Bill Miller’s Legg Mason Capital Management which reported owning about 1.54 million shares in the company by the end of the third quarter of the year. By that same period, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group reported ownership of about 2.79 million Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE:BBY) shares and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported ownership of about 8.3 million Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) shares.