7,600 fake goods seized in Guangzhou

Law enforcement personnel seized more than 7,600 counterfeit products during a special operation targeting counterfeiting in shopping malls and stores near Guangzhou Railway Station in the Yuexiu district of Guangdong's provincial capital on Sunday.

The fake products were seized during investigations of 17 cases and included leather goods, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and watches suspected of having infringed on the exclusive rights of trademarked brands such as Hermes, Dior, LV, Gucci and Versace, according to a statement released by the Guangzhou market supervision administration on Tuesday.

The special operation, which was jointly launched by the administration and the public security bureau of Guangzhou, the city's Yuexiu and Baiyun districts and local neighborhood committees, dealt a heavy blow to counterfeiting activities surrounding Guangzhou Railway Station, where many bazaars and shopping malls are located, the administration said.

All suspected counterfeit products have been documented and seized in accordance with the law, and all the stores and stalls involved in the sale of the goods have been asked to close for further investigation and rectification, it said.

The operation was launched on Sunday following a special report from China Central Television about active counterfeiting in the area near the train station.

Guangzhou will intensify law enforcement efforts to combat infringement and counterfeiting around the station to keep pressure on vendors in the area selling fake goods, the administration said.

It hinted that more campaigns targeting counterfeiting will be launched in the months to come.

The large price gap between genuine and phony products has encouraged rampant counterfeiting in recent years, according to a store manager who asked not to be named.

A genuine branded leather belt is priced at 800 yuan ($111.11) in regular shopping malls and specialty stores. However, a fake one usually changes hands for less than 180 yuan, he said.

Since the beginning of the year, law enforcement departments in Guangzhou have investigated 181 cases involving the production and sale of counterfeits worth a total of approximately 169 million yuan, the administration said.

Huang Chuxin, an office worker in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, said operations targeting counterfeits should be launched frequently.

"Counterfeit brands satisfy the vanity of a small group of people, but they disrupt the normal order of the market and harm the interests of genuine manufacturers," she said.

Wu Chengbin, a local government employee, said the large number of counterfeit products being made and sold is due to the big profits they bring in.

"The cost for producing counterfeits is very low," he said, adding that more concrete and effective measures should be introduced to further crack down on the practice.

Last week, more than 3,300 metric tons of counterfeit and inferior goods valued at 330 million yuan were destroyed in 21 provincial-level regions.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn