Hong Kong Customs recently discovered five more websites registered in the United States, Singapore and South Korea, falsely claiming that Customs would seize goods for auction.
Today (13th), Customs issued another press release and uploaded a screenshot of the webpage to clarify that it has never auctioned confiscated goods through any website or social platform, and called on the public to be vigilant and not be deceived.
Earlier, Customs found that some criminals posted similar content on newly opened websites and dedicated pages of social networking platforms, and the above five websites sent false information in an attempt to mislead consumers and were suspected of infringing intellectual property rights, which may violate the "Hong Kong" The Trade Descriptions Ordinance and the Copyright Ordinance, a link to one of the websites even appeared on a Facebook social platform page named "Zhongchuang Superstore". Now, in addition to requesting the relevant social platform operators to remove the relevant link as soon as possible, Customs will also contact Interpol to follow up on the incident.
Customs reiterates that after completing the legal procedures of the case, it will strictly follow the established guidelines to classify and dispose of the confiscated items in the case.
If the relevant items are suitable for public auction, they will only be handed over to the relevant government departments in Hong Kong for coordination and follow-up, and will never be auctioned in cooperation with any outside parties or groups.
He also emphasized that he has always been concerned about illegal activities involving online shopping, and is committed to cracking down on unscrupulous online business practices and infringing acts to protect the rights and interests of consumers and legitimate merchants. Cases will also be referred to relevant overseas law enforcement agencies for joint follow-up.
According to the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, it is an offence for any person to sell or possess for sale a counterfeit article.
In addition, according to the Ordinance, "trade description", in relation to goods, means in any way and by any means (including oral), in respect of such goods or any part of such goods (including methods of manufacture, production, processing, previous ownership or use, etc.) make a direct or indirect indication.
Merchants shall not provide any false or misleading product information to consumers.
A trader who makes materially false or misleading representations about the goods may be guilty of false trade descriptions.
Contravention of the Ordinance is a serious offence. Upon conviction, the maximum penalty is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years.
In addition, according to the Copyright Ordinance, any person who distributes infringing copies through any device or electronic platform without the permission of the copyright owner to the extent that damages the rights of the copyright owner, or possesses infringing materials for commercial purposes, It is an offence and, upon conviction, the maximum penalty is a fine of $50,000 per infringing article and imprisonment for four years.
Customs appeals to members of the public to report any suspected bad marketing practices or infringing activities to the Customs 24-hour hotline at 2545 6182 or through its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).
Yuen Long Education Center falsely claimed that children’s courses were approved by foreign universities Customs detained male director Customs raided two retail stores, seized $780,000 of counterfeit goods, detained two women’s clothing stores, pretended to be direct overseas parallel imports, and detained 2 women, seized 600,000 yuan of goods
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