Fake Czech cosmetic products sold online in India, EOW starts probe
new delhi: The Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police has now registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Copyright and Trade Marks Act for the unauthorised and counterfeit sale of cosmetic products manufactured by a Czech Republic-based company.
The complaint, filed by the Czech company's authorised distributor in India, alleged that online retail giants such as Flipkart and Amazon were allowing the unauthorised sale of fake versions of their products.
Significantly, in the FIR registered by the police, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Flipkart Internet Private Limited and Amazon India Pvt Ltd have been named under the suspect column. Police said they received a complaint from the managing director of the distributor company who claimed, "Our client's company has been granted exclusive rights of sale for cosmetic products of an international company in India."
Outlining its frustration with the online retail websites, the complainant told police, "It has come to our notice that despite notifying on July 3, 2018, and repeated regular requests to delist fakes and unauthorised resellers, the two online shopping websites are providing and allowing fake resellers to sell their fake, unauthorised products of the cosmetic company which are not fit for skin and are charging exorbitant price from the customers."
The complainant argued that since both the shopping websites are the biggest and most esteemed online e-commerce companies in India, they are bound to check and verify whether the sellers have authorisation to sell their products or have the license to sell the products of an international cosmetic company in order to desist them from selling fake products on their
websites.
The complainant further said that he had in fact received complaints from his valuable customers about the products of the cosmetic company sold by these unauthorised resellers through online shopping websites being of inferior quality and that they have to cause wrongful loss of crores of Indian rupees.
The Delhi Police claimed that they conducted an inquiry on the complaint. "During the inquiry, the complainant stated that he is the authorised seller and license holder of the cosmetic products in India. No one other than him is authorised to sell these products in India, Delhi. Some persons and shopkeepers are selling counterfeit products of the international cosmetic company on online stores and they are being supplied and sold in Delhi," one police official said.
The complainant thus claimed that "the online website companies, sellers, firms and persons are violating the copyright and trademark rights" of his company. Police said that the inquiry conducted so far from the contents of the complaint has led to an FIR being registered for alleged offences under Sections 63 of the Copyright Act and 103/104 of the Trade
Marks Act.
