Website denies fake watch scam
By Wang Qingchu |
July 22, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THREE luxury Swiss watchmakers are suing China's biggest online shopping platform, claiming it allowed its members to sell counterfeit watches and infringe trademarks.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court heard that Omega Ltd, Longines Watch Co and Rado Watch Co accused -Taobao.com of letting members sell fake brand watches, the Beijing Times reported yesterday.
Omega alleged that Taobao placed advertisements promoting the fake watches on its own website and on Qianlong.com. It demanded Taobao and Qianlong stop the infringement and pay compensation of 2 million yuan (US$310,000).
The court was told that Taobao should set up a price screening system to prevent the sale of Omega watches below 7,500 yuan.
The average price of a genuine Omega watch is 37,000 yuan. A new one would be at least 7,500 yuan. However, a search for Omega watches below 7,500 yuan generated 28,369 results on Taobao, the court heard. One was found being sold on the site for only 898 yuan.
Taobao argued it was simply a platform for members to sell goods and said it forbade members from publishing anything that infringed copyright. It said members selling counterfeit goods were solely responsible for advertising and selling those items.
Taobao said it had tightened its rules on managing product information after receiving complaints from the watch makers. It said it had taken all Omega watches offered for under 3,000 yuan off the site.
However, some users had evaded the ban by mentioning the brand name only in the picture. The site's screening system was unable to identify illegal information contained in pictures, Taobao said.
Taobao also contested the watch maker's claim that price alone could indicate that products were counterfeit. It said prices could vary depending on the sales channel. The firm said there was no evidence that Omega watches offered at lower than 7,500 yuan were fake.
The verdict will be announced at a later date.
Omega, Longines and Rado are owned by Swatch Group, one of the world's largest watch manufacturers.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court heard that Omega Ltd, Longines Watch Co and Rado Watch Co accused -Taobao.com of letting members sell fake brand watches, the Beijing Times reported yesterday.
Omega alleged that Taobao placed advertisements promoting the fake watches on its own website and on Qianlong.com. It demanded Taobao and Qianlong stop the infringement and pay compensation of 2 million yuan (US$310,000).
The court was told that Taobao should set up a price screening system to prevent the sale of Omega watches below 7,500 yuan.
The average price of a genuine Omega watch is 37,000 yuan. A new one would be at least 7,500 yuan. However, a search for Omega watches below 7,500 yuan generated 28,369 results on Taobao, the court heard. One was found being sold on the site for only 898 yuan.
Taobao argued it was simply a platform for members to sell goods and said it forbade members from publishing anything that infringed copyright. It said members selling counterfeit goods were solely responsible for advertising and selling those items.
Taobao said it had tightened its rules on managing product information after receiving complaints from the watch makers. It said it had taken all Omega watches offered for under 3,000 yuan off the site.
However, some users had evaded the ban by mentioning the brand name only in the picture. The site's screening system was unable to identify illegal information contained in pictures, Taobao said.
Taobao also contested the watch maker's claim that price alone could indicate that products were counterfeit. It said prices could vary depending on the sales channel. The firm said there was no evidence that Omega watches offered at lower than 7,500 yuan were fake.
The verdict will be announced at a later date.
Omega, Longines and Rado are owned by Swatch Group, one of the world's largest watch manufacturers.
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