People’s Daily People’s Commentary： Online professional counterfeiting, don’t cross the line.

　　The market economy is an economy ruled by law, and counterfeiting and rights protection must also be carried out according to law. Once it crosses the border, any illegal act will be punished by law.

　　Using "eating goods" means applying for a refund and not returning goods, using "getting on the bus" means following others to fight counterfeiting, and using "buying tickets" means giving benefits to leading counterfeiters … It is reported that online professional anti-counterfeiting has formed a gray industrial chain, and some professional anti-counterfeiting people take profit as the purpose, buy fakes for compensation, and recruit apprentices to impart experience.

　　Professional counterfeiting is nothing new. In the 1990s, Wang Hai got double compensation for buying fake, which caused a heated discussion. In recent years, with the rapid development of e-commerce, the main position of professional anti-counterfeiting has quietly shifted, pointing the finger at a large number of online stores, and the scope of anti-counterfeiting has also expanded: it includes obvious faults such as selling fakes and price fraud in stores, as well as nonstandard commodity labels and the use of prohibited advertising words. In reality, a publishing house was reported as false propaganda by professional counterfeiters because of the word "most" in the book promotion language, and an online shop was reported as price fraud by professional counterfeiters because it failed to modify the picture price in time at the end of the promotion.

　　The behavior of knowing and buying fakes is complex, so professional counterfeiting has always been controversial. Undeniably, professional counterfeiting has really played a positive role objectively, which has cracked down on fake and shoddy products and purified the market environment to a certain extent, and is called the "woodpecker" in the market. With the rise of Internet e-commerce platform, online shopping complaints are increasing day by day. Statistics show that in 2018, the national market supervision department accepted a total of 1.682 million online shopping complaints, up 126.2% year-on-year. The complaints were mainly false advertisements, counterfeiting and substandard quality. Professional counterfeiters are familiar with consumer rights protection law, advertising law, e-commerce law and other laws and regulations, and their rights protection efficiency is high, which is beneficial to promoting consumer rights protection to a certain extent.

　　However, after years of development, the negative effects of professional counterfeiting have gradually emerged. The subjective starting point of professional anti-counterfeiting is profit, which is doomed to the limitations of anti-counterfeiting methods. Some people only look for profitable "business" in the choice of anti-counterfeiting objects, usually picking soft persimmons, deliberately looking for loopholes in novice shops, and finding problems requires privacy. Some counterfeiters lack self-discipline, from knowing and buying fakes to making fakes, and even extorting money, for example, erasing the production date of goods with liquid medicine and stuffing their hair into bread with needles. All these have not only dispelled the positive effects of counterfeiting, but also disrupted the normal market order.

　　Online professional counterfeiting, which originated from the improper behavior of merchants in the process of market transactions, will gradually withdraw with the improvement of relevant legal systems and the standardization of market supervision. Safeguarding consumers’ rights and interests and perfecting the system are the fundamental paths. In recent years, from the new revision of consumer rights protection law, the new revision of advertising law to the formal implementation of e-commerce law, from strict law enforcement by regulatory authorities to smooth channels for consumer rights protection, the network of systems for safeguarding consumer rights has become more and more dense. In case of fraud, the specific provisions, such as refund for one loss and compensation for three losses, proof of defective products by merchants, and prohibition of false propaganda, also directly hit the real problems, promote businesses to operate in compliance with the law, and continuously improve consumers’ shopping experience. With the progress of society and the improvement of the system, the space for professional counterfeiting will inevitably be gradually reduced.

　　Nowadays, the rectification mechanism is gradually taking shape in view of the phenomenon of abusing certain clauses in professional counterfeiting claims. For online professional counterfeiters, their profit-making space will be further limited, and their profit-making difficulty will also increase accordingly. Judging from the cases in recent years, whether the identity of professional counterfeiters is protected by the law on the protection of consumers’ rights and interests and whether punitive damages can be obtained can be determined by the court according to the specific circumstances. In fact, some professional counterfeiters were reported by merchants for alleged extortion, and eventually "the plot reversed", which was not worth the candle.

　　Market economy is an economy ruled by law. For professional counterfeiters, anti-counterfeiting and rights protection must also be carried out according to law, and they should not be lucky and speculative. Once you cross the border, any illegal act will be punished by law.

　　People’s Daily (December 3, 2019, 05 edition)