Taobao claws out on fake brand cat food
ALIBABA’S popular retail site Taobao is seeking 2.67 million yuan (US$387,855) in compensation from a vendor for damaging its reputation by selling fake brand cat food, a trial heard yesterday.
Taobao is the first online shopping platform in China to take legal action in the campaign against trade in counterfeit goods, according to Fengxian District People’s Court.
The suspect surnamed Yao started selling pet food, including the popular Mars Inc’s Royal Canin cat food, via Taobao in January 2015. The illegal trading was discovered last May by Mars and Taobao, the court heard.
Samples bought from Yao’s store were handed over to police for testing. Results showed packages had been torn and then sealed, and nutrition levels didn’t match standards, the court was told.
Last October, Shanghai police raided Yao’s home in Baoshan and seized several bags of Royal Canin cat food, which were later proved to be counterfeit, the court heard.
Yao said she bought authentic Royal Canin cat food, priced at 112 yuan (US$16.25) per bag and then mixed the contents with other brands of cheaper cat food. She sold each bag for 99 yuan.
Figures showed Yao had sold cat food, purporting to be Royal Canin to a value of 5.88 million yuan from her store.
She said the products were safe and her mixture only accounted for a minority of sales.
Taobao claimed Yao had not only infringed the trademark of Mars but also damaged Taobao’s image. The company sought hefty compensation to warn other vendors on the platform not to sell counterfeit goods.
A verdict hasn’t yet been announced.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.