An empty bottle of used cosmetics is recycled at a high price of tens or even hundreds of yuan. Recently, there are many suspected "scalpers" who buy empty bottles on second-hand platforms. Once the posts about selling empty bottles are published, almost all of them will be shot in seconds. Ms. Wu, a citizen, recently sold an empty bottle of her idle cosmetics for 120 yuan. The more she thought about it, the more she felt wrong. Why would the other party pay 120 yuan for a glass bottle? Recently, lawyer Deng Xu of JAVY law firm was interviewed by Beijing Radio and television station 1039 News Morning Post, and gave a detailed interpretation of this event.
Some media reporters contacted a number of buyers who purchased empty cosmetic bottles through the second-hand trading platform as users, and found that empty bottles of some brands with higher prices were very popular. It is worth noting that many buyers said that they had purchased empty cosmetic bottles for a long time. However, when asked about the purpose of the purchase, they began to flash their words.
Not long ago, the people's Court of Guangling District, Yangzhou City announced a case of selling fake goods in "real bottles". The gangs involved bought a large number of empty bottles of genuine cosmetics from second-hand platforms, filled and sold genuine cosmetics after adulterating and diluting them, and sold them at low prices on online shopping platforms, posing as purchasing versions. The amount of illegal income reached 31million yuan.
(picture from the network)
At present, the purchase of empty bottles to fabricate has been concerned by relevant platforms. Some second-hand platforms will receive a risk prompt after searching for empty bottles. Real bottled fake goods are very deceptive, making consumers unable to guard against them. This is also an illegal act of counterfeiting registered trademarks and an infringement of the intellectual property rights of genuine cosmetics. Should consumers who sell empty bottles bear legal responsibility when convicting and sentencing illegal businesses?
Lawyer dengxu said that if the seller knew subjectively that others would manufacture fake and shoddy products after acquisition, and actively helped objectively, it should be deemed to have committed a joint crime. In such cases, criminal responsibility is required.
Lawyer dengxu
By using empty bottles to sell counterfeit goods, criminals must first of all have infringed upon the rights and interests of consumers, but also seriously infringed upon the rights and interests of the brand side. It is a kind of civil infringement, and if the circumstances are serious, it is also suspected of committing a crime.
Our consumers have sold their empty bottles to lawbreakers. If consumers have the negligence fault of lax review, they know or should know the purpose of counterfeiters. Our consumers are also suspected of joint civil infringement for the counterfeit products made from such corresponding empty bottles.
Although generally speaking, our consumers sell a small number of products, and it is difficult for the obligee to obtain evidence, so in practice, they will not be claimed, but this kind of behavior should still be negatively evaluated by the law. At the same time, in the long run, this kind of behavior also damages the interests of consumers, encourages this kind of counterfeiting industry, and it is difficult to guarantee that they will not buy this kind of counterfeit product.
Lawyer Deng Xu said that for second-hand trading websites or social media platforms that may still have various types of invisible empty bottle transactions, the platform side should also give full play to the regulatory mechanism to make the gray industry chain of empty bottle recycling more resistant.
Lawyer dengxu
As a platform, we should strengthen the audit of relevant information and give full play to our own supervision role. If such empty bottle recycling information appears on the platform, the platform should strictly review the corresponding information of such users, and review whether it has legitimate recycling purposes and whether it has been formally entrusted by the brand.
If the corresponding cosmetics brands have no corresponding recycling business at all, and the users have no environmental protection or other legitimate uses, then there is likely to be the motivation to make or sell fake products. At the same time, in the process of consumer transactions, the platform can also set up some pop-up reminders for such information to inform consumers that there may be some risks in such transactions, so as to avoid unwitting consumers becoming accomplices to fake and shoddy products.
Because of the genuine empty bottles, the business of making and selling counterfeit goods by criminals is "even stronger". However, the harm to the rights and interests of genuine businesses and consumers and the operation of the market should not be underestimated. Both consumers and the platform have become a line of defense, so that counterfeiters have no space to drill, and we can be more at ease and comfortable when consuming.
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