Macau Customs Service (SA) officers on Tuesday busted two shops suspected of selling fake brand items violating intellectual property rights (IP), involving 209 bogus items worth 4.86 million patacas in total, according to the prices that the products would have fetched if they had been genuine, an SA spokesperson said during a press conference yesterday.
Two local and two non-local female sales assistants working for the shops were arrested on Tuesday, according to the spokesperson, adding that the two shops’ owner, a local woman, has owned the shops since 2017 and 2022 respectively.
Customs officers yesterday were still tracking down the whereabouts of the owner.
According to the spokesperson, the Macau Customs Service has carried out spot checks on local shops recently and discovered that one shop in the Avenida de Horta e Costa area and another one in San Kio district were suspected of selling copyright infringement products.
The spokesperson did not reveal the affected brands.
The spokesperson noted that the bogus items were sold at prices ranging from 100 to 1,000 patacas each, with about 20 of them sold each month in the two shops, adding that the buyers were mostly local residents.
The spokesperson said that the four suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for violating Industrial Property Code Decree-Law No 97/99/M.
This handout photo provided by Macau Customs Service (SA) yesterday shows the fake brand items seized on Tuesday, displayed at their headquarters in Barra.
