Knockoff watch dealer imprisoned

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By Lu Chen (Global Times) 08:43, November 11, 2013

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An online store owner has been sentenced to three years and three months in prison for selling $41,060 worth of knockoff luxury watches, a district court said Friday.

The defendant, surnamed Huang, from Henan Province, and his wife, surnamed Shi, were each charged with selling goods with counterfeit registered trademarks, according to a press release from Minhang District People's Court. The court seized all of the couple's illegal profits and fined them 70,000 yuan ($11,493). Shi was sentenced to a year of probation.

Huang and Shi opened their two stores on iOffer.com in October 2012, where they sold knockoff watches to customers in the US, the UK and other foreign countries, the court said. The watches were all counterfeits of brands such as Rolex, Louis Vuitton and Omega.

Huang had run online stores geared toward domestic consumers, but switched to the overseas market after he heard that he could make more money selling goods abroad. He opened the two shops with the assistance of his wife and took payments via paypal.com.

The stores sold the watches as if they were on sale, so it remains unclear if their customers knew they were buying knockoffs, said Wu Yixuan, the court's press officer.

Wu said police came across Huang's stores during a routine crackdown on counterfeit goods. Huang and Shi were arrested at their home in Minhang district in February. Police seized 114 knockoff watches from their home.

The couple's sales records showed that they had sold 787 watches.

According to Chinese law, one can be sentenced to three to seven years in prison for selling more than 250,000 yuan worth of goods carrying registered trademarks.

（Editor：HuangJin、Chen Lidan）