Macau Customs Service officers on Wednesday busted a shop suspected of selling fake products infringing on various international brands’ intellectual property rights (IP), involving 155 bogus items worth 2,390,000 patacas in total, according to the prices set by the retailers, a customs spokesperson said during a press conference yesterday.
According to the spokesperson, local customs officers carried out spot checks on local shops on Wednesday and discovered that a fashion outlet in the Horta e Costa district was selling copyright infringement products.
The spokesperson said that the officers nabbed a 47-year-old non-resident-worker (NRW) employed as a saleswoman, adding that at the time of the press conference held at noon yesterday, the Customs Service was still looking for the shop owner and tracing the sourcing of the bogus products.
According to the spokesperson, a preliminary appraisal by brand authentication experts confirmed that all suspected counterfeit clothing seized from the shop, priced between 500 and 2,300 patacas, were indeed fake replicas of major international brands. Customs investigators believe that the shop began operating around 2022, marking over two years of illicit activity, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said that the saleswoman has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP). According to the Industrial Property Code Decree-Law No 97/99/M, the suspect faces a hefty fine and up to six months behind bars.
The Macau Customs Service emphasised that selling products infringing copyright constitutes a criminal act, with convicted offenders facing prison time.
Customs seizes 585 used laptops, 3,320 used electronic devices at parallel-trading den
Meanwhile, the Macau Customs Service announced in a statement on Wednesday that its officers raided a parallel trading den in the peninsula’s northern district on Wednesday where they seized 585 used laptops and 3,320 used electronic devices worth around 900,000 patacas in total.
According to a Macau Customs Service statement on Wednesday, that afternoon officers caught a 42-year-old local man in charge of the den who had hired parallel traders to smuggle electronic products from Macau to the mainland.
The suspect will be fined in compliance with the relevant provisions listed in the External Trade Law, the statement said.
A total of 155 counterfeit international brand clothing items seized from a local shop on Wednesday are displayed at the Macau Customs Service’s headquarters in Taipa’s Pac On district yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
This undated handout photo provided by the Macau Customs Service on Wednesday shows the 585 used laptops and 3,320 other used electronic devices seized from a parallel trading den in the northern district earlier that day.
