The Chinese counterfeiting industry - Consequences for selling "Fake" brand products

Hey steemers!

In recent years, a new mode of purchase has emerged: counterfeithing. This has become common in China, it consists in paying people to acquire fake luxury goods.

This is a practice that is always less expensive than buying the product on the spot or on the website of the brands in question. They sell a lot of brands of milk powder, cosmetics , clothing and handbags much cheaper than the originals.

Sellers and their customers often get in touch on the Internet. Social networks play an important role in this contact. The social network Weibo, a kind of Chinese Twitter, allows retailers to have an easily accessible showcase.

It is pretty easy and accesible, you just browse through the tags of major brands like Céline, Hermès, Chanel, to have access to their profiles, on which are posted photos of the articles offered taken directly in the stores. Some buyers go as far as posing with the articles In the fitting rooms, but what you see is the original and what you buy is clearly a fake one.

For every great brand, there's always a salesperson. Sometimes they use great products to make them, such as real leather to make the fake handbags look similar to the original. All the sellers mostly speak French, English and Mandarin, so it is easy to comunicate with them.

Since this practice is illegal. the Chinese government has reinforced its customs controls. Those caught in the act risk a huge fine. Also, other measures were reinforced, parcels marked for "personal use" are now subject to a tax if their content is worth more than 5000 yuan (about 740$).

These dealers can be sentenced to eleven years in prison for reselling fake items. Dealers are taking more and more precautions and go so far as to communicate only by voice messages on instant messaging, for fear of being monitored. It is not easy to stop doing this when you know that you can make billions of dollars per year.

I personally never bought from these chineses counterfeiting sellers or websites but I d'ont have anything against them either!

Thanks for reading!