CCTV Report! Case involving 150 million yuan! Chongqing Police Crack Major Case of Manufacturing and Selling Counterfeit Brand Luminaires

On November 8, CCTV's "Rule of Law Online" program broadcast a news report titled "The Full Story of Cracking the Major Case of Manufacturing and Selling Counterfeit Brand Luminaires." According to reports, in a major case of manufacturing and selling counterfeit brand luminaires solved by the Chongqing public security organs, the police seized more than 90,000 sets of counterfeit brand luminaires, with the amount involved reaching as high as 150 million yuan.

The following is the report from "News Simulcast":

According to reports, Chongqing police received a report from local residents stating that they had purchased a batch of branded luminaires at a low price from an online store on an e-commerce platform, but soon discovered serious quality issues. Given the online store's promise of a two-year warranty, the reporter immediately contacted after-sales customer service upon discovering the problem, but received no response.

To verify the authenticity of the purchased branded luminaires, Chongqing police promptly contacted the luminaire brand enterprise to test and authenticate the problematic luminaires. The results showed that this batch of luminaires were all counterfeit and shoddy products, produced by criminals who fraudulently used the enterprise's trademark.

A responsible person from the infringed luminaire company stated that the counterfeiting of trademarks and products has an all-around impact on the enterprise. The most direct impact is severe damage to the brand's appeal. Because consumers unknowingly purchase counterfeit goods, they mistakenly believe that product quality has declined, and subsequently raise after-sales issues with the enterprise. Upon learning the truth, some consumers may reduce their trust in the enterprise.

The report pointed out that the source of the online stores selling these counterfeit branded luminaires was an industrial park in Guangdong. Through three months of secret investigation and patient work, the police confirmed that this was a criminal gang led by Long Moumou, a criminal group involved in the manufacturing and sales of counterfeit luminaires spanning production, manufacturing, and e-commerce sales. To cut off the chain of counterfeit manufacturing and sales crimes, in October this year, the police launched a concentrated arrest operation against 13 hiding places of the gang. At the scene, the police arrested 47 criminal suspects and seized more than 90,000 sets of counterfeit finished and semi-finished luminaires, with the case involving funds as high as 150 million yuan.

According to police investigations, since 2018, the main culprit Long Moumou and his fellow villagers, relatives, and friends have rented factories in multiple industrial parks in Guangdong to begin producing various counterfeit branded luminaires. Then, under the name of "official enterprise authorization," they sold these counterfeit branded luminaires through e-commerce platforms to more than 20 provinces and cities across the country.

这些假冒品牌灯具使用低劣的LED灯珠等光源材料，电源线、绝缘材料等不符合安全要求，结构和工艺粗糙，照度、均匀度等指标参数达不到国家标准要求。假冒伪劣产品性能低下、存在质量问题，在使用过程中不仅影响用户获得预期的照明效果，更为严重的是存在极大的触电、失火等安全隐患。

It is reported that the cost of these counterfeit brand luminaires is low, ranging from 10 to 40 yuan, but the selling price on e-commerce platforms is 5 to 20 times the cost. During the sales process, suspects directly attracted customers by offering half the brand's retail price on online stores, confusing and deceiving consumers with carefully prepared scripts. Due to the low prices, most online stores selling these counterfeit brand luminaires had booming sales.

Currently, the suspects are suspected of the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and the crime of selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, and have been criminally detained by the police in accordance with the law. The case is under further investigation. The public security organs stated that they will continue to crack down on various types of infringement and counterfeiting crimes, effectively strengthen criminal protection of intellectual property rights, and make due contributions to creating a good business environment.

Lighting products come in diverse categories and have wide applications. As consumption levels rise, market demand for brand-name products continues to increase. In recent years, criminals have targeted this potential market, seeking huge profits through manufacturing and selling counterfeit goods, infringing upon the legitimate rights and interests of well-known lighting enterprises and consumers, and disrupting the normal order of the lighting consumer market.

Currently, the lighting industry is undergoing transformation and upgrading towards high-quality development. Creating an orderly and healthy domestic lighting consumer market environment is also an important measure for building a new development pattern. We call on industry practitioners to take protecting the sustainable development of the industry and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers as their responsibility, fully fulfill their main responsibilities, actively learn from and draw on the anti-counterfeiting action experiences of brands such as NVC / NVC Lighting, OPPLE, Bull, MLS / MLS Co., Ltd., New特区 Li, and Songwei, and proactively participate in and support actions against counterfeit and shoddy lighting products. The China Association of Lighting Industry will also provide relevant services and support for enterprises in carrying out anti-counterfeiting and rights protection work.

Image and video source above: CCTV.com