□ Reporter Rosasa
□ Correspondent of this newspaper Tang Jiarui and Xuan Xiaoxia
Heart of beauty in everyone.
Some criminals take advantage of consumers' pursuit of quick results, add large amounts of chemical mercury to cosmetics, and bundle and sell genuine products with "samples" to evade supervision.
Fan and Wu, who have been engaged in cosmetics sales in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province for many years, in order for the new company to quickly occupy the market, added mercury tens of thousands times exceeding the standard in the "samples" and bundled them with genuine products that met the inspection standards to create "quick whitening and freckle removal" "The gimmick attracted customers, and sales reached more than one million yuan within half a year.
Ms. Lu came to the cosmetics store run by Fan to get a manicure.
During the chat, the store staff recommended the "377 Double Brightening Combination" product to her, saying that the product could quickly remove acne marks and spots.
Ms. Lu was very excited after hearing this, so she spent 398 yuan to buy a set of products. The clerk also gave samples of day cream, night cream, etc., and said that formal wear must be used with the samples for the best effect.
After using the product for a few days, Ms. Lu's face began to become red and itchy. She quickly sought medical treatment and was diagnosed with a cosmetic allergy.
Ms. Lu sent the cosmetics for inspection and found that the mercury content of the night cream in the "sample" reached 11952.4mg/kg.
The "Technical Specifications for Safety of Cosmetics" (2015 edition) stipulates that the standard mercury content of cosmetics cannot exceed 1mg/kg.
Ms. Lu immediately reported it to the Jiangyin Municipal Administration for Market Regulation.
The bureau randomly sampled and tested the product, and the test results showed that the mercury content of the "sample" night cream was 5700mg/kg.
The Jiangyin Municipal Administration for Market Regulation transferred the suspected criminal case to the Jiangyin Municipal Public Security Bureau, and the Jiangyin Municipal Public Security Bureau opened the case for investigation.
The police found that the cosmetics store run by Wu and Fan had repeatedly ordered the "377 Double Brightening Combo" set from Li, the head of a cosmetics company in Guangzhou.
After random inspection, it was confirmed that the mercury content in the sample it was paired with exceeded the standard by 43,000 times, making it a substandard product.
The police arrested Fan and Wu and seized 1,329 gift boxes at the scene.
After investigation, Fan and Wu have been engaged in cosmetics micro-business agent sales for a long time and have a large customer base.
Among them, Fan is responsible for promoting products, and Wu delivers goods according to Fan's arrangements.
In 2020, the two discussed preparing to launch their own brand of cosmetics, registered a company, applied for relevant trademarks, and opened stores.
According to Fan, in order to occupy a place in the fiercely competitive cosmetics industry, it is necessary to have a "hit product."
For this reason, several people decided to launch a product with rapid whitening and freckle removal effects after discussion. However, after asking Li, he found that if he wanted to have good results, he would have to use "heavy medicine" and add a large amount of mercury, but such a product could not pass the test. .
Li proposed to make large boxes of cosmetics that have no obvious freckle removal effect but can pass the test, that is, genuine products, and then give "samples" of "three-no products" to customers in the name of not for sale when selling genuine products.
When submitting for inspection, only genuine products are sent for inspection, and "samples" as gifts are not sent for inspection, thus getting through.
In this way, following the entrustment of Fan and others, Li found a regular manufacturer to produce genuine large sets of boxes, and he purchased the raw materials and filled them to produce small sets of gift boxes by himself.
The police transferred the case to the prosecutor's office for review and prosecution.
After review, from September 2020 to March 2021, the criminal suspects Fan and Wu ordered more than 9,000 sets of the above-mentioned "combination" from the criminal suspect Li three times at a price of 48 yuan per set, and paid a total of More than 430,000 yuan.
It was later retailed or sold to agents at prices ranging from 60 yuan to 168 yuan per set. A total of more than 7,700 sets were sold, with a sales amount of more than 1.1 million yuan.
On July 27, 2023, the procuratorate launched a public prosecution against three people for the crime of producing and selling counterfeit and inferior products. After a trial, the court sentenced the defendants Fan, Li, and Wu to fixed-term imprisonment of seven to seven years for the crime of producing and selling counterfeit and inferior products. Wu will be suspended for a period of two years and fined between 700,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan.
"Since the criminal suspect filled the samples by himself in a small workshop and there were no operating standards, the mercury content of each bottle of sample night cream was different, but all seriously exceeded the standard." Gu Yueyue, the prosecutor in charge of this case, told a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily .
Gu Yueyue reminded that legal red lines cannot be touched, and businesses must operate legally and gain a foothold in the market through healthy competition.
At the same time, consumers should also be wary of all kinds of "special effect" products. While purchasing products from regular channels, they should also improve their ability to identify false propaganda. They should be wary of so-called gift "samples" from unknown sources and never If you are greedy for petty gains, you will suffer big losses.
If your legitimate rights and interests are infringed, you should immediately report and report to the relevant departments and protect your legitimate rights and interests through legal means.
(Source: Rule of Law Daily)