[Economic Observation] How to crack Rashomon's identification of overseas products?

　　According to media reports, recently, when consumer Mr. Guo put the Gucci belt that he bought at Vipshop for resale, the belt was identified as non-genuine by the platform, which triggered heated public opinion.

　　On April 7, Vipshop responded on its official Weibo that the Gucci belts were sourced directly overseas by Vipshop. The purchase links were clear, reliable, and legally compliant to ensure authenticity, and stated that each Gucci belt is equipped with There are genuine anti-counterfeiting buckles from Vipshop.

　　In the evening, Dewu responded that it had sent the Gucci belts provided by relevant users to four third-party authentication platforms including China Certification & Inspection Group Shanghai Co., Ltd. for review, and the results of the review were still non-genuine.

On April 8, Vipshop responded again, saying that in order to protect the user experience, it has handled returns for some users who have requests for returns.

However, after the products returned by users are delivered to China Certification & Inspection Group Guangdong Co., Ltd. for identification, the results show that these products meet the technical information and process characteristics announced by the brand/manufacturer.

　　The third-party appraisal results given by Vipshop and Dewu both have appraisal reports from China Certification & Inspection Group, but the two appraisal results are exactly the opposite.

　　In fact, this is not the first time that Rashomon has been identified for overseas shopping products.

In January 2019, NetEase Koala was caught in a storm of "true and false Canadian geese".

In July 2020, Secoo was also caught in a storm of "true and false Burberry".

　　For consumers, the most authoritative way to identify whether overseas shopping products are genuine is of course to find the right holder or authorized person of the brand trademark for identification.

However, Zhang Dezhi, director of the Consumer Supervision Department of the China Consumers Association, told reporters that some brand trademark owners have no authentication authorization in China; some have authorization but are worried about collocation, damage to brand reputation, unwilling to cause trouble, and worry about offending strong people. Factors such as sales channels or e-commerce platforms are not evaluated; for others, the products must be sent to foreign headquarters for evaluation.

　　Gucci China said in an interview with the media on April 8 that it has paid attention to the news of the dispute between Vipshop and the property appraisal, and does not comment on this for the time being.

Gucci guarantees that what consumers buy through official channels must be genuine products. Official channels include brand-managed stores, official websites, and related authorized channels.

Gucci China also stated that Gucci itself does not provide identification services.

　　Trademark right holders do not conduct appraisal, and the appraisal conclusions of third-party appraisal agencies are inconsistent. How can consumers defend their rights when they suspect that it is a fake?

　　In this regard, Beijing Yunjia Law Firm and a special researcher of the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, Zhao Zhanzhu, said that consumers can go to the court to sue and then apply for judicial authentication if they want to protect their rights. The court appointed a qualified judicial appraisal agency to conduct appraisal.

　　However, litigation is time-consuming and laborious, and consumers are generally unwilling to take this route.

In this regard, Zhang Dezhi pointed out that if brand trademark rights holders are unwilling to conduct appraisal, relevant departments and consumer association organizations can organize powerful and reputable third-party appraisal agencies for consumer rights protection.

Social identification can be used to force brand owners to lay down or give up their concerns and provide consumers with identification services.

This can provide a reference for consumers to purchase, block the circulation of counterfeit goods, and reduce the damage of counterfeit goods to consumers' rights and interests.

　　Liu Junhai, a professor at the School of Law of Renmin University of China, pointed out that consumers have the right to know the true conditions of the goods they purchase, use, or services they receive.

Therefore, cross-border e-commerce companies are also obliged to actively disclose product origin, procurement, logistics and other full-link information to satisfy consumers' right to know.

　　Yang Zhaokui