First, the definition of counterfeit goods
The definition of "fake" in Xinhua Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary is: imitation made to deceive customers. In the academic monograph "Research on Fake Goods" published by China Industry and Commerce Publishing House in 2008, the word "fake goods" refers to the following commodities: those that are obviously inconsistent with objective facts; It does not meet the standards issued by international organizations recognized by more than two-thirds of the governments in the world, nor does it meet the standards issued by governments of countries with per capita income of more than $65,438+$0.500 in 2006. The former is based on recognized regions, while the latter is based on the host country; If neither of them exists, the judicial judgment standard that the place of sale is equivalent to more than half of the judges in the courts at or above the provincial level in China shall prevail.
From these two definitions, two characteristics of counterfeit goods can be summarized: products produced by counterfeiting other people's trademarks; Inferior products. Therefore, this paper gives the definition of "fake goods": products produced by counterfeiting other people's trademarks or inferior products. For the first feature, we can easily accept that imitations of major brands can be seen everywhere in the market, and they have gained living space by virtue of their relative price advantages. For the second feature, we can give an example to illustrate it: For example, the protein content of milk with melamine is not up to standard, and long-term drinking will also affect the body function, especially for infants. Although the enterprise that produces this milk has a high market value and the brand is a well-known national trademark, it cannot be said that the products it produces are genuine fakes.
Second, the status quo of "more fakes" and "difficulty in counterfeiting"
When it comes to fakes, everyone in China has come into contact with them to some extent. It can be said that fakes are everywhere in our lives. Take the diet that has a wide impact on consumers' personal health as an example. Well-known fake cases include Sudan Red Incident in 2005, Melamine Incident in 2008, and gutter oil incident with indefinite time. Its wide spread and deep influence make people feel embarrassed so far. In addition, medical supplies such as counterfeit drugs and inferior instruments are mixed, and thousands of people are poisoned; Unqualified household appliances and furniture that emit toxic gases have caused many tragedies; Inferior brake pads and unqualified airbags add another challenge to our unsafe driving environment. According to statistics, the annual sales of Shanghai Volkswagen auto parts is only 65.438+0.4 billion yuan, while the annual sales of counterfeit products are as high as 3 billion yuan, more than double that of genuine products.
There are many fakes in China, and many departments have the power to crack down on fakes, including the Technical Supervision Bureau, the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, the Health Bureau, the Quarantine Bureau, the Quality Supervision Bureau, and the anti-counterfeiting offices in various places. However, the effect of counterfeiting is not obvious, which can be seen from the rampant and endless counterfeit goods in today's market. From the data point of view, the statistics of the State Council Development Research Center show that the amount involved in counterfeiting in 2000 was only 654.38+064 billion yuan, accounting for about 8% of the total output value of counterfeit goods in that year. The reasons for the difficulty in counterfeiting will be analyzed in the next section. This section only uses two cases to illustrate the current situation of the difficulty in counterfeiting.
Case 1, a fishy-eyed online shop. The frequent occurrence of fakes on e-commerce platforms is no longer news. On April 23rd, 2065438+0/KLOC-0, CCTV's focus interview exposed the problem of selling fake goods on Taobao, and the amount of fake goods was staggering. The reason why these shops can repeatedly sell fakes for a long time is not only to lure consumers at low prices, but also to take advantage of the loopholes in the rules of online stores. At the beginning of opening the store, online sellers bought their products anonymously for many times and gave them high praise, thus quickly accumulating credibility; Then take part in special activities to improve the visibility of the store, and with its huge price advantage, you can get a large number of orders in a short time. Even if they are reported to be closed down, these businesses can change their ID cards, re-register a shop and do the same thing. The cost of selling fake goods is quite low. In the face of many virtual "mole" sellers, law enforcement departments and related sales platforms may really be powerless.
Case 2, helping others abuse the anti-counterfeiting logo. Can the anti-counterfeiting marks printed on goods really be anti-counterfeiting? Or has it played a role in helping fake sellers deceive consumers? Take Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab as an example: The fishing season of 20 12 began on September 22nd, but before that, many shops had started to sell the so-called "Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab" with anti-counterfeiting rings. In addition to the obvious inconsistency in the release time, it is almost difficult for ordinary consumers to distinguish between true and false. The main reason why consumers are deceived is the anti-counterfeiting ring. I thought that as long as I brought the "golden ring", that is, the authentic Yangcheng Lake product, I could buy it with confidence, but who knows that every shop selling crabs has anti-counterfeiting rings, and the purchase price is extremely low, only six or seven cents for one. Faced with numerous "Gui Li", some crab farmers in Yangcheng Lake said angrily that avoiding anti-counterfeiting marks may be the best anti-counterfeiting.
Third, the economic roots of the phenomenon of "more fakes" and "difficulty in counterfeiting"
1, the price is low, the demand is large, and there are many suppliers, so counterfeiters have no time to deal with them one by one. Just as Marx quoted Dostoevsky in Das Kapital: "Once there is a proper profit, capital becomes bold. If there is a profit of 10%, he promises to use it everywhere; With a profit of 20%, he becomes the main driver; With a profit of 50%, he dares to take risks; For the profit of 100%, he dares to trample on all human laws; If there is 300% profit, he dares to commit any crime, even risking being hanged. "
Because the cost of product development, brand promotion and after-sales service is saved, the price of fake goods is much lower than that of genuine goods. Some fakes are of acceptable quality and appearance and cheap prices, so the market demand is strong, which has given birth to the prosperity of the fake market; There are more people who make fakes, and it is impossible for people who make fakes to manage them one by one, so fraud becomes a problem.
2. The market mechanism is imperfect, and the problem of information asymmetry is prominent. There are two kinds of consumers who buy fakes. One is to buy fake goods knowingly, and the other is to be cheated. The reason for being deceived can be explained by the theory of "lemon market". Lemon market, also known as defect market, refers to the market with asymmetric information, that is, in the market, the seller of products has more information about product quality than the buyer. In this market, consumers can't distinguish the quality of products, so they can only choose goods with average price or below to reduce their shopping risk. In addition, the price of genuine products is often higher than the average price, which leads to the elimination of genuine products and the gradual occupation of the market by inferior products. This is the problem of adverse selection in information economics.
3. Laws and regulations are not enough to punish those who make and sell fake goods, and the legal cost of making fake goods is low. At present, China's laws on counterfeit goods include consumer rights protection law, product quality law and anti-unfair competition law. However, the punishment for making and selling fake goods is relatively small and the form is too simple, mainly fines. Or take Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs as an example. Successfully applied for national geographical indication products. 20 10 Suzhou Quality Supervision Bureau issued the Measures for the Protection of Geographical Indications of Hairy Crabs in Yangcheng Lake, Suzhou, which stipulated that "whoever marks the geographical name of Yangcheng Lake as the origin of hairy crabs without authorization shall be ordered by the quality and technical supervision department at or above the county level to make corrections and be fined between 5,000 yuan and 30,000 yuan." No matter what the scope of protection measures is, the punishment is far from enough: the price of hairy crabs marked "Yangcheng Lake" is more than 10 times higher than that of ordinary crabs, and a finished crab can be sold for about 100 yuan, with high profit rate and relatively low legal cost. 4. Law enforcement departments are complicated, and the negotiation cost is high, which is easy to breed bribery. The relevant departments involved in counterfeiting in China are slow to respond to counterfeit and shoddy products appearing in the market and cannot find them in time. When they found out, due to technical problems and departmental barriers, they could not make a decision quickly or make a punishment quickly, which provided counterfeiters with an opportunity to transfer and put government departments in an embarrassing situation. Moreover, at present, China's laws mainly deal with counterfeiting and selling fakes with fines, and the fines collected are owned by the government, which has little incentive for law enforcement personnel and is inefficient; People who are punished also know that law enforcers are "economic men", and giving them benefits can escape the punishment of the law, which breeds bribery.
5. Consumers' anti-counterfeiting cost is high and income is low, and their anti-counterfeiting enthusiasm is not high. The energy spent negotiating compensation, the cost of identifying the authenticity of goods, the time cost of litigation and the possible litigation cost are all the costs of consumers' counterfeiting. And its anti-counterfeiting income is only "fake one loses two" as stipulated in the Consumer Protection Law. Therefore, in the face of counterfeit goods, consumers' awareness of rights protection is not strong, and only when the scale of expenditure is large and they suffer obvious losses will they have a strong desire to fight counterfeiting.
6. It is difficult for enterprises to crack down on counterfeiting, and there are certain risks, so the enthusiasm of enterprises to crack down on counterfeiting is not high. Fake goods in some fields not only harm the economic interests of enterprises, but also occupy the market, crowd out competitors and cultivate potential customers to a certain extent. From this perspective, in some areas, fake goods are not all bad for enterprises. At the same time, counterfeiting also has certain hidden dangers for enterprises. Once a large-scale crackdown on counterfeit products, it is equivalent to telling consumers that buying products of this brand is risky. It is conceivable that in today's rich substitutes, when consumers know that a certain brand of counterfeit goods is flooding the market, the lowest cost choice is not to study hard to distinguish authenticity, but to choose to buy similar products with good reputation from other brands. Moreover, anti-counterfeiting belongs to the scope of public rights after all, and enterprises are often unable to crack down on anti-counterfeiting, and the input and output are disproportionate. Therefore, counterfeiting is a difficult problem for enterprises. Even if counterfeiting, it is not necessarily a high-profile counterfeiting, and it is often hidden and low-key.
7. Some media lack conscience, are willing to be "economic men" and condone counterfeiters. Some media accept bribes from counterfeiters to cover up counterfeiting and selling fakes. Take the Da Vinci case of 20 1 1 as an example. 20 1 1 In July, CCTV's Weekly Quality Report revealed that Da Vinci's furniture quality and origin defrauded consumers. In July of the same year 10, Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Bureau intervened in the investigation, and initially determined that the products of Da Vinci Home Furnishing Company had quality problems. Subsequently, Da Vinci Home Furnishing Co., Ltd. published "Public Apology Letter to Consumers" to admit the mistake; However, it later issued a statement denying the company's previous apology. It turned out that after the publication of the Weekly Quality Report, the head of Da Vinci's home found Cui Bin, then the president of Cultural China Communication Group, who had held important positions in many domestic media, for help, and signed a public relations contract of 3 million yuan as the price of "diluting and dissolving the supervision of media public opinion" and "calming the negative impact of the incident", and then conducted a series of public relations transactions.
8. Local governments protect fraud, and it is difficult to handle cross-regional cases. Influenced by the pressure of performance evaluation and the temptation of money, some local governments regard the manufacture and sale of fake and shoddy goods as a means to promote local economic development, and either turn a blind eye to those who manufacture and sell fake goods or criticize them lightly. Unreasonable performance appraisal system and power rent-seeking led to the emergence of local umbrella. We should straighten out the performance appraisal structure, establish a national anti-counterfeiting department, and reduce the possibility of rent-seeking.
Fourth, governance countermeasures.
1. straighten out the distribution system, realize * * * common prosperity, guide consumption tendency, and do not pursue luxury goods. With the increase of consumers' income, the demand for low-grade goods will decrease, which will further reduce the profit space of fake producers and sellers, and ultimately reduce the supply of fake goods, making it easier to crack down on fake goods. At the same time, the government and the media should guide the correct consumption concept, and consumers should not deliberately pursue famous brands and luxury goods, so as to "buy only the right ones, not the expensive ones", thus reducing the demand for famous brands and reducing the generation of imitations.
2. Buyers and sellers communicate information to reduce information asymmetry. Information asymmetry is the reason for the existence of "lemon market". In order to communicate the information between merchants and consumers and reduce the possibility of consumers being deceived, enterprises can establish a guild system to jointly supervise and crowd out counterfeiters. You can also use high-tech anti-counterfeiting labels so that ordinary counterfeiters can't imitate them; Franchise stores are easily recognized by consumers and can generally guarantee to sell genuine products to consumers; We can cultivate consumers' discriminating ability by distributing leaflets and advertising education. Although the cost is high, it can cultivate loyal customers. Nowadays, with the rise of online shopping, each website should be responsible for the goods sold in the station, expose the information of goods fairly and openly, improve the transparency of information and reduce the possibility of adverse selection. From the perspective of the platform's own interests, actively purifying the trading environment is conducive to establishing a brand image, attracting customers and expanding living space.
3. Improve laws and regulations to increase consumers' litigation income. The first is to introduce the theory of * * * with litigation jurisprudence. At present, China's laws follow the principle of handling fake cases, which leads to high litigation costs for consumers and objectively condones the impunity of counterfeiters. In fact, many consumers are in a similar situation when facing the same counterfeiter, so they can completely combine into one, take the same lawsuit, reduce the cost of counterfeiting, increase the profit of counterfeiting, and make consumers willing to stand up and fight counterfeiting. The second is to focus on fines rather than compensation. At present, the punishment for making and selling fake goods in China is mainly a fine, but because the fine is handed over to the state, the law enforcers are not motivated and are vulnerable to bribery. If the fine is changed to high compensation, the situation will change. When consumers are hurt, they will not rationally choose to indulge fakes because of their low income, but will join the ranks of counterfeiting under the incentive of high compensation and become a member of actively maintaining the normal order of the market.
4. Combine the anti-counterfeiting powers and clarify the "anti-counterfeiting property rights". Whether the definition of property rights is clear determines the efficiency of the market, and whether the ownership of anti-counterfeiting rights is clear also determines the efficiency of anti-counterfeiting law enforcement. If there is no clear anti-counterfeiting right, there will be many departments shirking each other and making profits from each other, but no one really takes the shot. China should set up a national anti-counterfeiting department to take charge of cracking down on fake and shoddy goods, so as to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of enterprises and citizens. In the statement issued at the 20 1 1 the State Council executive meeting, it was also advocated that law enforcement agencies should establish cross-regional and inter-departmental cooperation mechanisms and strengthen international exchanges and cooperation.
5. Use clever strategies to avoid trouble and improve the success rate of counterfeiting. First of all, enterprises should make full use of their professional advantages, such as setting up a special anti-counterfeiting department, organizing experienced anti-counterfeiting personnel and legal advisers, and forming a professional anti-counterfeiting team. Secondly, enterprises can take some ingenious measures to encourage consumers to report counterfeit products to the greatest extent while reducing the negative impact of counterfeit goods on the reputation of enterprises. For example, consumers can be induced to send the purchased product package back to the company together with information such as purchase time and place, and the company will give consumers a certain return. Through the identification of these packages, we can grasp the sales areas and ways of counterfeit goods, and then take action. Finally, enterprises should not be eager for quick success and instant benefit when implementing anti-counterfeiting actions. After obtaining enough anti-counterfeiting evidence as much as possible, report to the relevant departments and investigate and deal with them to maximize the anti-counterfeiting effect.
6, reform the performance appraisal system, so that local officials have the motivation to fight counterfeiting. Our country once unilaterally pursued economic construction, and the assessment system for local officials was also based on economic growth, which was conducive to rapid economic development, but it also caused many problems. With the implementation of Scientific Outlook on Development and the further clarification of the general requirements for building a well-off society in an all-round way, China should appropriately reform the evaluation system of officials, reduce their economic pressure, increase the pressure of counterfeiting, and give local officials the motivation to crack down on counterfeiting for the benefit of the people.
7. The media should accept social supervision while exercising self-discipline. Media people should have a fair heart, truly and objectively reflect the truth, and strive to strengthen their self-cultivation; In addition, we must strictly enforce relevant laws and industry rules to supervise media behavior and severely deal with bribing media.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion
The experience of developed countries proves that the activities of making and selling fake goods have a life cycle similar to Kuznets' "inverted U-shaped curve". In the early stage of economic development, there were few counterfeiting activities; With the economic growth, counterfeiting activities will increase; After the economic growth reaches a certain stage, counterfeiting activities will gradually decrease. After entering the relatively developed social and economic stage, the economy, rule of law, morality, national quality and education level all restrict the behavior of counterfeiting and selling fakes. Therefore, with the development of economy and the perfection of market economic system, the market mechanism can reduce the activities of making and selling fake goods. However, this is a very long process, which will not be conducive to the healthy and sustainable development of China's economy. To this end, in the face of the proliferation of counterfeit goods, we should not wait passively, but improve the system, stimulate the enthusiasm of all parties in the market, and comprehensively use economic, political and legal means to shorten the process of "inverted U-shaped curve".