A couple was caught for selling inferior luminaries labeled with international brands via Taobao in Jiangsu Province, China.

The couple, surnamed Pan, bought loads of lighting components from Zhejiang Province and branded them as top lighting manufacturers in China such as Media, OSRAM, Opple, Philips and others products. They proceeded product distribution with the help of Taobao retailers. On December 3, Wang was detained by Wujin Procuratorate for counterfeiting registered trademarks and Pan was released on bail.

Earlier in October, police received reports large volume of disassembled luminaires were discovered on the second floor of a workshop. They also found numerous inferior lighting luminaries at a nearby electronic factory’s garage. Police investigation revealed that the couple had rented the workshop’s second floor to assemble lighting luminaries since March last year. They later rented the garage to stock up their inventory as sales went up.

Investigation uncovered the couple acquired brandless cheap lighting parts and bathroom heating lamp fixtures from Zhejiang and labeled them with international brands to meet customers’ requests. A salesman provided them the brand labels while Zhejiang suppliers contributed the boxes needed for their “goods”. Pan and Wang also hired an advertising company to print manuals for luminaries and bathroom heating lamp fixtures to make them as real as possible.

These fake luminaries were mainly supplied to a few Taobao retailers. Some individuals also contacted the couple by phone and purchased the luminaries after inspecting them. These counterfeit products sold well due to its low price.

The couple profit reached RMB 400,000 (US$ 65,038) from the sales as of the time of being detained. The goods in the garage are estimated totaling RMB 500,000 and are currently under detention.