Author: Jie Shuyi ▪ Le Yan ▪ Chen Yangyuan
Spend tens of thousands of dollars but it is possible to buy fake luxury goods?
Recently, Ms. Liang, a consumer, broke the news to China Business News that in December 2022, she bought a bag at the official flagship store of Tmall Gucci (GUCCI) for 19,500 yuan, and planned to return it because the capacity did not meet expectations. Her bag will not be returned on the grounds that it is inconsistent with the delivery video.
Then Ms. Liang started to defend her rights for compensation.
A reporter from China Business News learned that there are "true and fake" phenomena in online luxury transactions.
Nearly 20,000 yuan to buy a fake bag?
Ms. Liang said that she asked Gucci customer service to show the delivery video of the bag she purchased, and the other party provided a screenshot of the quality inspection of the same bag with a hang tag on it, saying that this was the bag sent to her. .
But Ms. Liang believes that this does not mean that the bag in the photo is the one sent to her. The bag and tag she received were separated, and the tag was intact and not buckled.
But Gucci customer service has always said that the bag and its tag in the picture provided by Ms. Liang are not the one out of the warehouse.
Ms. Liang’s suspicion is that in the courier she received, the size on the box and the size on the bag are inconsistent, while for other buyers who also purchased from the official flagship store of Tmall Gucci (GUCCI), the two sizes are the same. .
In addition, the merchant changed the delivery warehouse and changed the delivery from Suzhou to Jiaxing.
On February 15 this year, Ms. Liang went to Shanghai Zhongjian to inspect the bag, and the results showed that the bag she received did not meet the craftsmanship characteristics of the brand's genuine bag.
In addition, Gucci China's official customer service responded to reporters that there is no relevant information and specific progress for the incident to the media.
Chen Wenming, director of Zhejiang Xiaode Law Firm, analyzed that Ms. Liang asked a third party to test the bag, and the results showed that the bag she received was fake, and she had fulfilled the burden of proof to prove that the bag was fake. The (GUCCI) official flagship store claims that the bag is genuine and needs to fulfill the relevant proof responsibilities, such as its receipt, sales checklist and management process, and that the bag has never been exchanged from the warehouse to the express delivery.
"If the official flagship store of Gucci (GUCCI) fails to provide evidence or the evidence is insufficient to prove its factual claims, it will bear the adverse consequences and perform procedures such as return and refund for Ms. Liang. Gucci's official customer service insists that what they sell is Genuine, but did not provide complete evidence, the evidence is not enough to prove that it is genuine, and there is fraud at the same time, it should be compensated for the losses suffered by Ms. 3 times."
Lawyer Chen Wenming told the first financial reporter that there are three main reasons for the mixed goods in the luxury goods market: the most common one is that they are repackaged by shop assistants, the real goods have been taken away by the staff privately, and the fake goods are sold to customers; The second situation is that the official brand is shoddy. Due to the hot sales, the luxury brand is in a hurry to find a supplier when the supply exceeds the demand. At this time, the product materials and craftsmanship are often very different from the original product, and the product and the label do not match. The quality of the products is not as good as that of fakes. This kind of "drinking poison to quench thirst" has happened before; the third situation is that dealers sell fakes on a large scale. The dealer can sell 1 product, but the dealer can sell 10. It is a common phenomenon for dealers to sell counterfeit products.
Based on the relationship of interest, brand staff often turn a blind eye.
According to Chen Wenming's analysis, the inbound and outbound link and the logistics and transportation link of the luxury goods market need to improve the relevant legal system to effectively protect the rights and interests of consumers.
"Disgusting the real with the fake" and "Buying the fake if you know the fake"
On the black cat complaint platform, there are currently thousands of complaints about luxury goods, involving multiple sales platforms, many of which are due to the purchase of fake products.
In the second-hand luxury goods market, the probability of fakes appearing is even higher.
The "Research Report on the Development of China's Second-Hand Luxury Market (2021)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by Yousheyipai shows that in 2020, the comprehensive authenticity rate of the products identified by Yousheyipai is 32.9%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7 percentage points .
China Business News recently launched "Who Is Violating Your Rights?
"Questionnaire survey, after about a month, more than 1,000 valid questionnaires were collected, of which 61.18% of the respondents encountered after-sales warranty problems in luxury goods consumption, and 56.86% of the respondents encountered quality problems. question.
A reporter from China Business News recently learned from multiple investigations that in the online transaction of luxury goods, there are several situations. One is that the goods are indeed genuine. Some merchants said that they buy goods from regular channels, and then sell them through platform channels to earn some price difference. , basically serving some old customers; the second is counterfeit sales, such as factories, sales channels and even fake tickets and fake cards. Some are rough, and some are well-made. These vendors sell fake products as real ones, and consumers basically don't know about them; the third type is "knowing the fakes and buying fakes". The reporter once encountered a type of merchants who directly told consumers that what they sold was not genuine. Goods, but the price is cheap, the workmanship is acceptable, the main focus is a "cost-effective", and some consumers are willing to "know the fake and buy the fake".
"Big brand LOGOs seem to represent wealth, or some workplaces need luxury bags, but they may not have high spending power, so such consumers are willing to buy high imitations, so there will be more and more high imitations." Engaged in Wang Shan, who works in luxury goods appraisal, believes that such "knowing and buying fakes" also encourages the circulation of high-quality imitations.
So what about the pre-owned luxury market?
Recently, a reporter from China Business News visited several second-hand luxury stores and learned that in some stores, every bag is hung with the China Inspection brand, and customers can scan the code to view the identification information.
There are also some stores whose products are appraised by their own appraisers, but if customers have the demand to send them to China Inspection and Appraisal when they buy them, the merchants will also meet them.
"Fakes nowadays are 'the more they are made, the more authentic they are'. Take LV as an example. In the past, the pattern could be used to judge the authenticity, but now it can't be the same as before. All the points need to be combined to make a comprehensive judgment. In the past, you may only need to look at the presbyopia of LV. , it can be said that this bag must be fine, but it must not be said now, and now it can only be said that there is no problem in all parts of this bag, so it has no problem.” Wang Shan told the first financial reporter.
Wang Shan further introduced that when the experience is rich enough, sometimes if you get started, you almost already know the result.
However, general appraisers will judge from the smell of hardware, zippers, bronzing, lettering, wiring, swimming edges, and leather.
In short, identification generally requires "looking, smelling, asking, and cutting". The smell of a bag's leather is very important. Different brands of bags or hardware jewelry have their own tastes.
Overall, metal lettering is the most difficult to imitate.
There are also some merchants who will "free" or low-cost luxury appraisals for customers, but do not issue appraisal certificates. What they do is the business of receiving goods.
A businessman told the first financial reporter that it is not the main business to do appraisals by himself, and he does not have relevant appraisal certificates, but he is capable of appraisals. He mainly purchases second-hand luxury goods that the clients do not need after appraisals for the clients. Then he has his own follow-up processing channel.
Who is responsible for the brand side and the platform?
The incident between GUCCI and Ms. Liang is still controversial. Tmall said that it is inconvenient to respond to this matter at present.
The relevant person in charge of Tmall told the first financial reporter that Tmall will carefully evaluate and review the qualifications of merchants entering the platform, and those who open brand official flagship stores on the platform are brand officials who can provide relevant qualifications or merchants with brand authorization. , At the same time, Tmall will also conduct in-process supervision through consumer comment feedback at any time, and if there is centralized consumer feedback, it will also conduct random inspections.
If the merchant sells counterfeit goods, Tmall will clear the store according to the rules.
In addition, in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of both consumers and merchants, Tmall luxury merchants will also strictly review the returned packages by keeping complete delivery videos and anti-counterfeiting buckles, so as to prevent criminals from disrupting business operations order.
How to solve consumers' concerns about buying "fake goods" has always been an important issue for e-commerce platforms to do luxury business.
On the "Tmall Luxury Products" channel, most of the products are marked with "Fake One Pays Four", Tmall merchants promise consumers that if they confirm that the product is not genuine after receiving the goods, in addition to the transaction refund, they will also have to pay the consumer a refund. Increase compensation.
JD Luxury Products has also put out the label of "Official Flagship, Authentic Product Guarantee" to add quality traceability to the product. Consumers can scan the QR code on the product packaging or click "Quality Traceability" in the order to view the information.
On the page of luxury goods sold by Pinduoduo with tens of billions of subsidy, it is also marked "10% for one fake". If consumers receive counterfeit products, they can get ten times the compensation in cash coupons.
Despite this, some consumers reported that they may still face various "difficult to judge" claims dilemmas in the consumption process.
While the market for high imitation products satisfies the needs of some consumers, it also damages brand equity and misleads some consumers.
The relevant person in charge of Tmall told the first financial reporter that counterfeit goods are goods that imitate other people's products with the same or similar outer packaging and main functions. These goods do not necessarily infringe on other people's intellectual property rights. Confusing, that is, making consumers associate with so-called "fake goods", the platform can also take measures according to the rules.
For example, capture target brands and products through manual or systematic screening, conduct screening from multiple dimensions, and capture suspected counterfeit brands or products, so as to screen and identify "easy to confuse buyers."
So, if some merchants on some e-commerce platforms sell counterfeit luxury goods through live broadcast, in this case, do both merchants and platforms need to bear legal responsibility?
According to Article 7 of the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions" promulgated on March 15, 2021: Internet service providers such as social networking and live broadcasting provide operators with online trading platforms such as online business premises, product browsing, order generation, and online payment. service, the obligations of online trading platform operators shall be fulfilled in accordance with the law.
In this case, both the merchant and the platform need to bear corresponding legal responsibilities.
(Wang Shan in the article is a pseudonym)