Beware of ＂counterfeiting＂ becoming ＂fake＂

□ Luo Pan

Recently, the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Punitive Compensation Disputes over Food and Drugs (hereinafter referred to as the Interpretation) was released on August 21, and came into effect on August 22. This document regulates malicious high claims, continuous purchase claims and repeated claims, and all support punitive compensation claims within the scope of reasonable living and consumption needs. This is a wake-up call for the professional counterfeiters: do not let "counterfeiting" become "fake fighting".

For a long time, professional counterfeiters have played a complex and subtle role in the field of consumer rights protection. On the one hand, with their keen insight and mastery of laws and regulations, they exposed and cracked down on batches of fake and shoddy products, effectively purified the market environment and protected the legitimate rights and interests of consumers; On the other hand, driven by interests, some professional counterfeiters have gradually deviated from the track of justice, alienated "counterfeiting" into a tool for profit, and even resorted to illegal means to extort money, seriously disrupting the market order and damaging the authority and credibility of the law.

The promulgation of the new Interpretation is a powerful response to this chaos. It clearly defines the boundary of "knowing and buying fakes" in the field of food and medicine, and emphasizes that punitive damages must be within the scope of reasonable living and consumption needs, which is not only a further guarantee for consumers’ legitimate rights and interests, but also a profound norm for professional counterfeiting. It tells us that the law supports legitimate and legitimate rights protection behavior, rather than making illegal profits by taking advantage of legal loopholes.

The existence of professional counterfeiters should have been a positive force in the market supervision system and a line of defense between consumers and businesses. However, when "counterfeiting" becomes "counterfeiting", this force loses its due glory and even becomes a negative factor in the market. Malicious counterfeiters use legal loopholes to extort money in the name of "counterfeiting", which not only makes businesses miserable, but also makes the regulatory authorities exhausted, resulting in a great waste of social resources. In the long run, it will not only weaken the public’s trust in the law, but also cause more social contradictions and problems.

Therefore, we must be soberly aware that professional counterfeiting is not illegal, and their behavior also needs to be strictly bound and supervised by law. For those malicious counterfeiters who extort money in the name of counterfeiting, the law must show their swords, hell to pay. At the same time, we should also strengthen the education and guidance to consumers, improve their legal awareness and self-protection ability, so that they can rationally and legally safeguard their rights and interests.

In addition, the government and all sectors of society should work together to build a more perfect market supervision system. By strengthening the construction of laws and regulations, improving the efficiency of law enforcement, increasing punishment and other measures, a powerful deterrent to counterfeit and shoddy products has been formed. At the same time, encourage and support all sectors of society to participate in market supervision, and form a good atmosphere for the whole society to govern together. Only in this way can "counterfeiting" return to its true meaning and make the market environment clearer and healthier.