In January 2003, Chen Zhiqiang was born in Xuwen County, Guangdong Province.
When he was a "post-00", he took professional anti-counterfeiting as his life goal.
After his 18th birthday in January 2021, in less than a year, Chen Zhiqiang sued merchants for more than 800 claims.
All the files stacked above the cabinets in Chen Zhiqiang's room were taller than him at 1.82 meters.
Just when Chen Zhiqiang was "complacent", on December 27, 2021, the Xuwen County People's Court issued a "Civil Ruling", finding that Chen Zhiqiang "used to sue the court as a means to take advantage of the panic of the merchants to force the merchants to compromise, and to ask the merchants for many times. Money, and the amount is very large", has been suspected of extortion.
At present, the Xuwen County Public Security Bureau has filed an investigation on Chen Zhiqiang's alleged extortion.
Chen Zhiqiang became the focus of public opinion.
The pride of "waiting for a case file" is hard to match the panic caused by a ruling, and he is worried that the police will take coercive measures at any time.
Chen Zhiqiang's "professional fight against counterfeiters" has also come to an end.
First acquaintance with crackdown
In a village near the county seat of Xuwen County, Chen Zhiqiang lived alone in the attic on the second floor.
The room of about 20 square meters is not only a bedroom, but also his anti-counterfeiting studio.
Tea leaves bought to crack down on counterfeiting are piled up in the corner, and changed clothes are thrown by the bed.
The case files for the one-year occupational vacation were packed in file bags and placed at the top of the wardrobe and bookcase.
This is Chen Zhiqiang's "victory result", "I am 1.82 meters tall, and the materials combined are taller than me."
Chen Zhiqiang's crackdown on counterfeiting began in 2019, when he was still a minor.
In January 2019, while watching the news online, Chen Zhiqiang noticed a case where he successfully obtained compensation in anti-counterfeiting: the party spent more than 10,000 yuan to buy coffee, sued for unqualified products, and received more than 100,000 yuan in compensation.
The high compensation has attracted Chen Zhiqiang, and since then the idea of professional anti-counterfeiting has arisen.
Chen Zhiqiang's life plan was recorded in the notebook in which he copied math problems in high school. "Crackdown on professional counterfeiting" was the most important part of his adult life.
In 2019, Chen Zhiqiang purchased 20 catties of honey online for 920 yuan, and filed a lawsuit with the Xuwen County People's Court on the grounds that the product was not labeled with the product, claiming 10 times the compensation.
Worried that he would be retaliated against, his father withdrew the case before the court session.
Chen Zhiqiang put in 920 yuan of pocket money and had to give honey to relatives.
The failure of the first crackdown did not affect Chen Zhiqiang's continued crackdown.
2019年一年的时间内，他先后起诉了5家商户，但都主动撤诉。陈之强的解释是，未成年时到法院立案需要父亲协同，但父亲不支持他打假，“先好好学习，三年后再干也不迟”。
陈之强是家中长子，母亲很少过问他的事。在外面与朋友玩耍，或带客人进出家门，陈之强的母亲都不过问。陈之强的父亲则希望儿子能找一份正经工作。
陈之强与网友交流时言谈随意，网友指责他唯利是图。父亲建议他以另一种方式与人交流，但陈之强不服。即使是在接受记者采访时，他仍然多次与父亲争执，坚持自己的处事方法，“我都是成年人了”。
一年800多场官司
18岁生日，是陈之强期待已久的日子。在陈之强看来，过了那一天，他就能以成年人的身份走进法院，开始谋划已久的职业打假。他提前一个月在朋友圈中倒计时。
2021年1月28日，身在校园的陈之强，在朋友圈中发了张图片庆祝自己“成年”。
成年后的第二天，陈之强就开始寻找打假“猎物”。
他在徐闻县的永恒超市发现一款过期腊肉，售价不足十元，陈之强分20单买了20包。到第一家超市就找到了目标，陈之强 “以为中奖了”。
按照我国法律规定，购买到不合格食品，消费者最高可以申请10倍赔偿，赔偿金额不足一千元的，按一千元计算。按照陈之强的计算，每单索赔1000元，20单就能获得2万元的收入。
这是陈之强成年后第一次以消费者的名义向法院起诉。
永恒超市老板黄如虎经营超市多年，这也是他第一次收到法院的传票。黄如虎告诉新京报记者，超市内临期商品会提前下架，但有时会错漏，并不是故意销售过期食品。顾客购买到过期食品，超市会退货退款。
永恒超市距离陈之强家两公里，毗邻菜市场，店内顾客熙熙攘攘。黄如虎把陈之强当作小孩，认为他是故意找茬。黄如虎不愿招惹是非，安排员工联系陈之强，息事宁人。
2021年2月7日，通过协商，永恒超市付500元赔偿，陈之强收钱后撤诉。但陈之强说，第一单打假虽然成功，但并没赚到钱。他以同样的理由起诉20次，撤诉后缴纳了500元诉讼费。
According to Chen Zhiqiang's plan, in the first year of professional anti-counterfeiting, making money is not the main goal.
He plans to file a thousand cases. "There are more cases, and the influence is greater, and it is convenient to do anything you want."
According to the statistics of the Xuwen County People's Court, from February 2021 to December 23, 2021, Chen Zhiqiang was involved in more than 800 cases in the court.
According to Chen Zhiqiang, among the more than 800 cases, two or three hundred compensations were negotiated after negotiation.
There is no standard for the amount of compensation negotiated. For commodities of several tens of yuan, generally three or five hundred yuan will be compensated.
Chen Zhiqiang said that although he received nearly 200,000 yuan in compensation for one year of professional anti-counterfeiting, the money was used to buy goods to continue the fight against counterfeiting. Yuan.
"lawyer"
Not long after he was engaged in the occupational crackdown, Chen Zhiqiang changed his screen name and added the prefix "legal person".
Some netizens also referred to him as a "lawyer" when contacting him.
Chen Zhiqiang explained that he is engaged in legal work, helping to write legal documents or providing legal advice, but he is not a lawyer, and the term "lawyer" is more accurate.
Chen Zhiqiang has been interested in law since junior high school, and he also bought law books to read.
When applying for a secondary school, he once chose a law major, but later chose an ordinary high school.
After graduating from high school, my classmates went to work in factories with a monthly salary of 5,000 to 6,000 yuan.
Chen Zhiqiang hates hands-on work, and his ideal is to be a lawyer.
In his opinion, being a lawyer can make more money.
In 2019, when he tried to crack down on counterfeiting, Chen Zhiqiang was blocked from entering the court because he was under the age of 18.
Chen Zhiqiang began to petition, asking for corrections.
Chen Zhiqiang sent hundreds of materials to these petition bureaus according to the online addresses of the municipal petition bureaus in Guangdong Province.
The Xuwen County People's Court later told Chen Zhiqiang that minors could enter the courtroom, but they needed approval to enter the courtroom to sit in the courtroom.
After becoming familiar with the petition procedure, Chen Zhiqiang also helped others to petition.
Huang Mou from Xuwen County, in a traffic accident case, the court ordered the other party to compensate him more than 300,000 yuan, but he did not execute it for more than ten years.
In July 2020, Chen Zhiqiang helped Huang with a petition, hoping that the court would enforce it.
Chen Zhiqiang said that Huang had promised to pay him the fee after receiving the compensation.
Soon, Chen Zhiqiang started another petition.
When Chen Zhiqiang received the court's notice of acceptance of the case, he found that the court did not inform the parties in the notice which judgment documents would be published on the Internet.
Chen Zhiqiang asked the court to make corrections through petition.
The Xuwen County People's Court made rectifications after accepting it and rewarded him with two legal books.
Chen Zhiqiang applied to the court for a cash reward of 10,000 yuan, but was rejected by the court.
The petition made Chen Zhiqiang a "celebrity" in Xuwen County, and his professional anti-counterfeiting attracted national attention.
In addition to personally cracking down on counterfeiting, Chen Zhiqiang also claimed that he has rich experience in cracking down on counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting, and can help others defend their rights.
In April 2021, Chen Zhiqiang bought coffee online to crack down on counterfeiting, and was rejected when he claimed to customers.
During the communication process, the merchant claimed that it was difficult to defend his rights after reporting for the training course and paying the fee, and asked him to help recover the training fee.
Chen Zhiqiang called the training institution in the name of the business principal to request a refund, otherwise he would sue in the court.
The training institution returned 2,000 yuan, and Chen Zhiqiang got half of it.
Chen Zhiqiang also, in the name of his employees, helped the supermarket bosses "anti-counterfeiting".
In June 2021, a merchant in Guangxi was sued by a professional anti-counterfeiter for 30,000 yuan for selling substandard beef jerky.
The merchant contacted Chen Zhiqiang and hired him for 7,000 yuan to respond to the lawsuit in the name of an employee.
In the end, the local court identified the other party as a professional anti-counterfeiter and rejected the claim for 10 times the compensation.
Chen Zhiqiang was very emotional. He helped the merchants to fight counterfeiting successfully, not because of his own ability, but because of the lack of legal support.
In his opinion, the other party faced the same situation as when he cracked down on counterfeiting. "The court rejected it because the other party was a professional cracking down on whether the beef jerky was qualified."
Chen Zhiqiang also created a paid communication group, and the price of joining the group is 388 yuan.
He shared the experience of litigation cases with the group friends and guided the group friends to crack down on counterfeiting.
The 18-year-old Chen Zhiqiang has become a "strong brother" in the anti-counterfeiting circle.
During the interview, Chen Zhiqiang continued to receive inquiries from other anti-counterfeiters, asking for questions about anti-counterfeiting.
In the nearly half a year since the establishment of the group, Chen Zhiqiang has only recruited more than ten people.
Chen Zhiqiang was reluctant to talk about recruiting anti-counterfeiting students, "a bit on the edge of (legal)".
Fighting fake "three axes"
Chen Zhiqiang's anti-counterfeiting field is limited to food.
In Chen Zhiqiang's view, food anti-counterfeiting can apply for 10 times the compensation, and the "profit" obtained is also higher.
At the beginning of the crackdown on counterfeiting, Chen Zhiqiang usually bought food through local supermarkets and sued for compensation.
However, Chen Zhiqiang found that it is difficult to find "prey" through offline supermarkets cracking down on counterfeiting.
After the professional crackdown on counterfeiting began in 2021, Chen Zhiqiang positioned the "anti-counterfeiting target" in food sold by e-commerce.
"First, there are many prey on the Internet; second, considering personal safety, through the Internet (purchasing goods), the danger is reduced." Chen Zhiqiang speaks quickly, and when it comes to legal issues, he is accustomed to tell it in sections .
When buying products online, Chen Zhiqiang generally selects products with more negative reviews as the target through product evaluation.
Chen Zhiqiang once bought 1,000 yuan of goat milk online without any labels.
He sued the court, and finally after negotiation, the merchant compensated 7,000 yuan.
"The first pot of gold in life is a big pot of gold, and I also earned a thousand yuan for goat milk."
Chen Zhiqiang said that cracking down on counterfeiting does not mean that the food involved cannot be eaten.
In April 2021, he bought six bags of tea from a local supermarket for 900 yuan and sued the merchant. The court dismissed his lawsuit.
Chen Zhiqiang gave some of the tea to a friend and kept a bag for his own drinking.
Chen Zhiqiang also spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy goose cooked food from the Internet, and found that the businessman's food production license was "falsified".
After receiving the goods, he negotiated with the merchant and asked for 8 times the compensation but was rejected.
Chen Zhiqiang told the other party that he would complain to the industry and commerce department, "The industry and commerce is not a joke. It's no use asking me again until the day of punishment." The merchant finally compensated 5,000 yuan.
In Chen Zhiqiang's idea, the anti-counterfeiting claims procedure has certain routines.
In addition to directly sue for claims after purchasing substandard goods, Chen Zhiqiang also has his own "three-axes": first call to talk with the merchant, if the negotiation fails, he will file a complaint with the supervisory authority, and if the complaint fails, he will sue to the court.
In the view of Li Mingming, the owner of the online shop, Chen Zhiqiang's behavior was to extort blackmail in the name of cracking down on counterfeiting.
In July 2021, Chen Zhiqiang purchased children's snack soufflé from her online store, and filed a lawsuit with the Xuwen County People's Court on the grounds that the product did not have an inspection and quarantine certificate for imported goods.
Li Mingming was a little confused when she received the notice of responding to the lawsuit. She believed that there were no imported raw materials in the pastry she sold, and she did not need an inspection and quarantine certificate for imported goods.
Soon, Chen Zhiqiang called her and asked for 1,000 yuan.
"He said that he was eating (fake) this bowl of rice, and if he did not accept mediation, he would let me wait."
On November 9, 2021, the Xuwen County People's Court rejected Chen Zhiqiang's claim after trial.
Li Mingming responded in defense and said, "The plaintiff (Chen Zhiqiang) disturbed the normal business environment of the operator, caused trouble to the legitimate operator, and attempted to use some people's unfamiliarity with laws and regulations to cheat money."
In response to the phenomenon that professional anti-counterfeiters use punitive damages to make profits or take the opportunity to extort money, in May 2017, the General Office of the Supreme People's Court said in response to the suggestion of the National People's Congress that it does not support this governance model of punishing evil with evil.
The court will gradually restrict the profit-making activities of professional anti-counterfeiters, except in the field of food and medicine.
Chen Zhiqiang also knows that the rationality of professional anti-counterfeiting is controversial, and the professional anti-counterfeiting he is familiar with is often dismissed by the court.
But some cases of winning against counterfeiting gave him hope again.
Shandong professional anti-counterfeiter Han Moumou bought red wine from a supermarket and sued for a claim, which was rejected by the court of first instance, and Han Moumou appealed.
In September 2019, the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court overturned the first-instance judgment and ordered the merchant to compensate more than 200,000 yuan.
"It's a good thing to get a fake one time, but it can't be a bad thing to fight ten times." The words of the Qingdao Intermediate People's Court in the judgment are often quoted by Chen Zhiqiang.
filed by the police
From cracking down on counterfeiting "for justice and money" to being suspected of committing a crime, it was completely unexpected by Chen Zhiqiang.
On December 27, 2021, the "Civil Ruling" issued by the Xuwen County People's Court stated that Chen Zhiqiang "used to sue the court as a means to take advantage of the panic of the merchants to force the merchants to compromise, and repeatedly asked for the merchants' money, and the amount was very large", The court found that Chen Zhiqiang was suspected of extortion, and transferred the criminal clues of Chen Zhiqiang's alleged extortion to the public security organs.
A reporter from the Beijing News found that the legality of the professional anti-counterfeiter’s behavior of knowingly buying fake claims is still inconclusive, and the people’s courts in various places have different judgments.
In 2014, the Supreme People's Court issued the "Regulations on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Food and Drug Dispute Cases", "Due to a dispute over the quality of food and drugs, the buyer claims rights against the producers and sellers, and the producers and sellers purchase The people's court shall not support the defense on the grounds that a person knowingly knows that there are quality problems in food or medicine but still purchases it."
On April 19, 2021, Liang Mingzhou in Guangdong purchased 120 bottles of liquor online, and later sued on the grounds that it did not meet the national food safety standards.
The merchant claimed that Liang Mingzhou was a professional anti-counterfeiter, knowing that he bought the counterfeit and demanded high compensation, and requested the court to dismiss his claim.
The People's Court of Yubei District, Chongqing City rejected the merchant's defense and ruled that the merchant returned the goods for a refund and paid ten times the compensation.
Beijing Li Mouyu bought weight loss health food online, and later sued for a claim due to the problem of the product ingredients.
The first instance of the Beijing Internet Court held that Li Mouyu frequently purchased products with problematic labels or ingredients and demanded ten times the compensation. His awareness of similar defects in products was much higher than that of ordinary consumers, and similar defects and defects in products were no longer sufficient for him. It was misleading, and its request for compensation for ten times the loss was rejected.
Du Peng, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongkai (Shanghai) Law Firm, said that the legal crackdown on counterfeiting objectively represents consumer rights protection, has elements of public interest litigation, is conducive to purifying the food market and promotes food safety, and should be supported.
If the relevant food is defective in the label or meets food safety standards, the relevant court may reject the plaintiff's claim.
A number of judgments on the Judgment Documents Online show that the Xuwen County People's Court did not investigate whether the merchants were responsible when hearing the case of Chen Zhiqiang knowingly buying counterfeit goods, and dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Chen Zhiqiang was a professional anti-counterfeiter.
On January 10, a reporter from the Beijing News came to the Xuwen County People's Court and wanted to interview Chen Zhiqiang's case. The staff of the publicity center of the court did not accept the interview in the name of requiring approval from a higher authority.
The Beijing News reporter then contacted the Zhanjiang Intermediate People's Court. As of 23:00 on the 24th, no reply has been received.
At present, the Xuwen County Public Security Bureau has made a decision to file a case and investigate Chen Zhiqiang's alleged extortion.
Chen Zhiqiang hired a lawyer to issue a legal opinion and hoped that the public security organ would withdraw the investigation on him.
On January 10, Chen Zhiqiang came to the Xuwen County Public Security Bureau to learn about the case, but was rejected.
The police handling the case told the Beijing News reporter that the case of Chen Zhiqiang's alleged extortion is still in the criminal investigation stage, and it is inconvenient to disclose the specific situation.
Several merchants who were cracked down by Chen Zhiqiang said that after Chen Zhiqiang was placed on file for alleged extortion, he received a call from the Xuwen County Public Security Bureau and asked them about the details of the case.
Fake and "fake"
The 2020 work report of the Xuwen County People's Court shows that the court accepted a total of 2,186 civil and commercial cases throughout the year.
According to this figure, Chen Zhiqiang has brought more than 800 lawsuits in Xuwen County People's Court on the grounds of "product seller liability disputes", accounting for almost one-third of the cases accepted by the court in previous years.
Several civil rulings issued by the Xuwen County People's Court show that if Chen Zhiqiang's claims are supported, it will lead to a wrong direction for the society, lead to the proliferation of such lawsuits, and cause a huge waste of judicial resources.
Lawyer Du Peng believes that the law does not stipulate a limit on the number of citizen lawsuits. According to the basic principle of "whatever is not prohibited by law", Chen Zhiqiang cannot be deemed to have occupied judicial resources just because he has prosecuted more than 800 times.
When dining at a restaurant, Chen Zhiqiang called the young waiter a "child".
Chen Zhiqiang rarely plays with his peers, does not play games or follow dramas.
In addition to lawyers, most of his daily contacts are friends who are engaged in anti-counterfeiting.
Wang Hai, a well-known "anti-counterfeiter" in China, has also been labeled as "extortion", and he is also paying attention to Chen Zhiqiang's situation.
On January 6, he connected with Chen Zhiqiang for a live broadcast.
"Fake beatings are illegal and criminal, and intentional blind beatings are also fake beatings."
During the live broadcast, Wang Hai said, "If he is defined as a professional cracking down on counterfeiting, the court must first acknowledge the existence of counterfeiting and selling."
Wang Hai told the Beijing News reporter that the act of making and selling counterfeit goods is a damage to the rights and interests of consumers, and the motive of counterfeiting does not affect the public welfare of counterfeiting, and the court cannot dismiss the lawsuit of counterfeiting because of his occupation.
Wang Hai said that if the counterfeiter does not understand the relevant laws and regulations, and there is not enough evidence, it is a nonsense to sue the counterfeiter and seller to the court for compensation.
Anti-counterfeiters deliberately beat a lot of times, and the amount of claims is huge, so there is a suspicion of extortion.
As public opinion fermented, Chen Zhiqiang was placed on file for allegedly cracking down on counterfeiting and extortion and became a social hotspot.
Chen Zhiqiang said that he was cut off from his fortune, and the road to cracking down on counterfeiting had also come to an end.
If this incident can be successfully implemented, he will continue to study law, or be an assistant to a lawyer.
"They're all grown ups" is a common phrase used by Chen Zhiqiang.
After being criminally filed by the police for alleged extortion, Chen Zhiqiang did not want to affect his family and was willing to take full responsibility for it.
If you need to compensate the merchant, "you can only owe it first, and you may work to pay back the money after you get out of prison."
Beijing News reporter Nie Hui