Source: Xinhua News Agency
ANTA, FILA, Champion... Many well-known brands at home and abroad can be purchased at a very low price in the live broadcast room. The "big V" of millions of fans, clothes are known as foreign trade "tail orders", each live broadcast with goods can attract tens of thousands of people "onlookers".
"The price is so cheap, will it be genuine?" Even if someone questions, they are always overwhelmed by the massive "planting grass" order information.
According to clues, in June 2021, Shandong Heze police detected an extraordinarily large case of manufacturing and selling counterfeit well-known brand clothing, and arrested a total of 37 criminal suspects.
After preliminary investigation, more than 4 million counterfeit clothing was sold throughout the country, and the transaction amount reached hundreds of millions of yuan. During the National Intellectual Property Publicity Week in 2022, the case was announced by the Ministry of Public Security as one of the ten typical cases in combating intellectual property infringement.
Why can "genuine products" be copied in large quantities?
"There's no edge in the warehouse, it's all mountains of imitation clothes." Li Jingyu, a police officer of the Food and Drug Ring Investigation Detachment of the Heze City Public Security Bureau, said that counterfeit clothes produced by factories were transported and stacked in a 3,700-square-meter warehouse in Heze and sold to consumers through an online platform.
In the suspect's warehouse, the counterfeit and genuine clothes made are piled up. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Wen
Time back to June 2021. The Food and Drug Ring Investigation Detachment of the Heze Municipal Public Security Bureau received a clue: an online store sold a large number of counterfeit brand clothing, and regularly broadcast live on the online platform. After analysis and judgment, the online store is located in a warehouse in the Development Zone of Heze City.
The police handling the case quickly found out the basic framework of the gang involved in the case, the division of labor, the new shop and the law of live broadcasting on the network platform, comprehensively deployed and controlled the production dens and sales networks of the personnel involved in the case, and concentrated on investigating and arresting a number of target dens and criminal suspects in Heze.
How are "genuine" clothes copied one by one? According to the criminal suspect Cong X, the gang first purchased genuine clothing, carefully compared according to the style, and then made counterfeit sample clothes, debugged and finalized, and then returned the genuine ready-to-wear clothes to find a foundry to put into production and sell.
"You can imitate the genuine clothing in a few days, and it is difficult to distinguish between the appearance and the genuine ready-to-wear." Cong Moumou said that if you find the same fabric and label as the genuine product, you can confuse the real with the fake.
Since 2014, the criminal suspect Tian Moumou has been engaged in the business of counterfeit brand clothing. He hired customer service and warehouse managers to sell counterfeit clothing in the name of foreign trade "tail orders" through online stores and 3 physical stores, and not only became an "industry" celebrity, but also became a network big V. Tian Moumou and others also used the method of changing the name of the goods regularly to evade platform supervision and increase the difficulty of investigating and handling the case.
After Tian Moumou and others arrived at the case, the police retrieved the transaction data of the network platform in the past 2 years, analyzed the massive data, detailed the amount of money involved and the category involved, and smoothly promoted the investigation of the case.
How do Internet celebrity anchors "harvest leeks"?
"Benefits only available in the live broadcast room" "Cleaning up inventory"... A series of routines have made a large number of consumers fooled into paying.
In addition to the traditional online store sales model, the criminal suspect also used internet celebrities to attract traffic, such as online celebrity with goods, hunger marketing, online group buying, big V promotion, etc., and gradually formed a sticky fan group of 5 million.
"Tian Moumou has recruited 8 Internet celebrity anchors to build an online celebrity live broadcast base and incubation center, using online catwalks, anchor explanations and other online live broadcast forms, and synchronously displaying and guiding the purchase of counterfeit brand clothing sold on multiple online live broadcast platforms." Li Yang, a police officer of the Food and Drug Ring Investigation Detachment of the Heze City Public Security Bureau, introduced that each live broadcast was viewed by tens of thousands of people.
"There are a lot of active fans in the live broadcast room, although some people question, is it really genuine that it is so cheap? But the anchor did not answer, only answering other questions about clothing styles, logistics and delivery. Li Jingyu said.
It is reported that Tian Moumou and other criminal suspects have been arrested, a number of criminal suspects have been prosecuted, and the case is being further tried.
"Manufacturers who make counterfeit brand trademarks clearly constitute trademark infringement, and Internet celebrities involved in sales should also make rational judgments on product quality and price." Cao Wei, associate professor of the School of Civil and Commercial Law of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, believes that according to the amount of money, scope of influence, duration and whether there are repeated teachings and changes, the relevant manufacturers and personnel may also be suspected of criminal offenses.
Severely punish the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods and protect intellectual property rights
"Being taught a lesson" "Looking forward to follow-up development, thanking the police for safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers"... After the case was solved, many netizens left messages on the online platform.
In this case, the foundry that produced counterfeit clothing and accessories involved many places. The Heze public security organs have summarized the common characteristics in the production and sale of counterfeit brand clothing cases, established an analysis and early warning model for cases involving counterfeit clothing, and have cracked similar cases accordingly.
The investigation and handling of this case has played a powerful deterrent effect. Relevant data show that during the "618" e-commerce promotion in 2021, more than 700 online stores suspected of selling counterfeit clothing took the initiative to close stores and remove shelves for rectification under the more stringent supervision of the platform.
In 2021, the public security organs detected a total of 21,000 cases of infringement of intellectual property rights and the manufacture and sale of counterfeit and shoddy goods, and all 83 major cases listed and supervised by the Ministry of Public Security were broken, maintaining market order and purifying the market environment.
"Strengthen policy coordination with industry authorities, in view of the prominent problems in new formats and models such as live streaming and cross-border e-commerce, timely crack down on illegality, effective protection of legality, and serve and regulate the healthy development of the industry." The person in charge of the Food and Drug Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security said that the public security organs insist on equal protection for all types of market entities and crack down on all kinds of enterprise-related intellectual property crimes in accordance with the law.
New marketing models such as live streaming with goods have brought consumers a convenient and affordable shopping experience, and have also achieved a number of Internet celebrities. Wealth should be taken from the way, internet celebrities are not easy to become famous, in addition to having huge traffic, they should cherish feathers, have a detailed understanding of goods, and avoid false publicity. Otherwise, it may not only lead to damage to reputation, but also bear corresponding legal responsibilities for serious cases.
Producer: Hu Qinghai
Coordinator: Yang Weihan
Reporters: Yang Wen and Zhai Xiang
Editor: Leng Yanyan
Poster Production: Zhongtu Network
Produced by Xinhua News Agency