As the Spring Festival approaches, beware of the rampant spread of counterfeit alcohol
Compiled from The Paper
Case review
As the Spring Festival approaches, liquor sales enter their peak season, and some lawbreakers begin to stir into action. On January 12, the Tongshan police obtained a tip-off that a man frequently visited a scrap station in Tangzhang Town of the district to purchase bottles and caps of high-end liquor, offering prices far above market value. This behavior immediately aroused the suspicion of the officers. Through investigation and analysis, the police quickly identified a villager surnamed Liu in a village in Tangzhang Town. According to the case-handling officers, Liu often transported large quantities of goods in boxes back from outside and soon shipped them out in bulk again, most of which were “high-end liquor.” There was no liquor warehouse in the village, and Liu had no supermarket or other retail outlet to his name. Where did the liquor come from, and where was it being sent?
Officer Xie Tian from the Tangzhang Police Station of the Tongshan Public Security Sub-bureau stated, “Liu and other gang members generally transport in the early morning hours, storing different types of alcohol in different warehouses, and they are very cautious during transportation.”
On January 20, Tongshan police dismantled two counterfeit production dens and three warehouses operated by Liu's gang, arresting five suspects. Authorities seized over 1,000 cases of various well-known liquor brands on site, along with a batch of counterfeit branded liquor boxes, packaging, empty bottles, bottle caps, labels, and equipment used for producing fake liquor, with a total value exceeding 500,000 yuan.
Investigation revealed that the suspect, Liu, and his wife, Wu, had been producing and selling counterfeit liquor since 2020. The couple rented an old, dilapidated two-story house to set up a workshop, using low-end liquor purchased from the market for just over 20 yuan as the base, filling it into collected bottles of high-end liquor, then adding the brand's bottle caps and affixing QR codes and barcodes. Thus, a bottle of “high-end liquor” was ready. These bottles were packed in cases and delivered to multiple local tobacco and liquor stores or supermarkets for sale. According to reports, each case (6 bottles) cost only 200 yuan to produce and was sold for 400 yuan, yielding a 100% profit. The retailers then resold them at the prices of genuine high-end brand liquor.
"Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China"
[2] Article 214
[3] Whoever knowingly sells goods bearing a counterfeit registered trademark, with a relatively large sales amount, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the sales amount is huge, the offender shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined.
[1] The author's perspective
In recent years, the crime of selling goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks has been steadily increasing. In addition to the substantial “profits” that illegal operators can obtain, this type of crime often involves spot transactions, making it difficult to detect. As a result, most illegal operators harbor a false sense of security, leading to the frequent and recurrent occurrence of infringement and criminal acts involving counterfeit registered trademarks and the sale of goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks.
In this case, Liu and his wife poured low-end bottled liquor costing just over 20 yuan into bottles designed for premium liquor, then used a machine to attach caps bearing the premium brand. The counterfeit liquor, which cost only about 30 yuan per bottle to produce, was resold to tobacco and liquor stores or supermarkets for over 60 yuan, yielding a profit margin of 100 percent on every bottle. This demonstrates the powerful temptation of such criminal activity. Liu not only knowingly sold counterfeit goods but also achieved an enormous sales volume, naively believing he would not be caught. Yet justice is universal and never fails. In the end, he was convicted and could not escape criminal punishment.
