Chinese authorities destroy counterfeit products worth $69 million

Authorities in China destroyed 3,000 tonnes of counterfeit products valued at 500 million yuan ($69 billion) at an event held across 17 provinces and cities, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The products were either burnt, dismantled, or thrown into landfill. The counterfeit products were purported to be from the brands such as Nike and Louis Vuitton.

Items in the haul included bottled alcohol sporting brands from Treasury Wine Estates and high-end baijiu producer Kweichow Moutai, state media reported.

A statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation, which did not name any brands, quoted Sichuan official Yang Xingping as saying that the government has prioritised cracking down on infringement, and was "forcefully rectifying illegal and chaotic phenomena through an iron fist".

The "destruction operation" was part of the 2022 China Fair Competition Policy Publicity Week. Such public displays are not uncommon in the country, where counterfeit production remains a large industry in spite of attempts to eradicate it.

Earlier on Wednesday, Amazon dismantled three counterfeiting operations in China, reportedly with help from local Public Security Bureaus (PSB) and Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU). The e-commerce giant said more than 240,000 counterfeit items were seized by law enforcement in the Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces.

"We appreciate law enforcement acting on our referrals and thoroughly pursuing these cases," Kebharu Smith, associate general counsel of Amazon's CCU, said in a statement.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimated global trade in counterfeit products was as much as $464 billion in 2019 and said a boom in e-commerce in 2020-21 led to massive growth in the supply of such goods.

(With inputs from agencies)

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