Hong Kong has busted 99 cases of selling infringing goods on the Internet with the arrest of 112 people in the first half of this year, a Customs official said yesterday.

Louise Ho, head of the Customs’ Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau, said there was a trend of criminal acts migrating from auction sites to social networking platforms. There were 64 such cases, said Ho, three times the number recorded in the same period in 2014.

Of the people arrested, 45 were under 21, double the number recorded in the same period last year. More students, in particular secondary school students, were found to be involved in operating illicit businesses. The youngest person arrested so far was just 12 years old.

Ho noted that many young people involved in these cases had the misguided belief that as long as they declared the goods as counterfeit to buyers prior to sale, there was no intent to defraud and hence no criminal liability. Some also had the misconception that it would be difficult to track them online.

Ho said Hong Kong Customs would be sustaining vigorous enforcement efforts against online sales of infringing goods during the summer holidays.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)