Recently, a reader wrote to report that "from a distance it looks like Jindian milk, but upon closer inspection it turns out to be Quandian milk", "the packaging is very similar, it's also orange juice, but the name is Orange Fruit Granules"... "Shanzhai" food is a product that looks similar to the genuine product but is much cheaper in price. Some products, although produced by compliant manufacturers, are suspected of infringement; Some do not have production qualifications and lack food safety guarantees. In recent years, "counterfeit" food has once again emerged in online shopping, takeout, and some offline snack shops, which deserves attention and vigilance. In addition to rural areas, "counterfeit" food has also appeared in online shopping, food delivery and other channels. For a long time, "counterfeit" food has been more prevalent in rural markets. When Ms. Yu, a reader from Poyang County, Jiangxi Province, returned to her hometown for the Spring Festival this year, she found that the taste of coconut milk on the dinner was "not quite right, and essence was very strong". After a closer look, she found that it was a coconut milk with a highly similar appearance to a coconut milk brand, but with a greatly reduced quality. The elderly at home have poor eyesight, making it difficult to identify whether it is a 'counterfeit' food in a timely manner. Plus, these miscellaneous drinks are much cheaper than regular products, so the elderly bought them out of curiosity Ms. Yu said. Compared to cities, rural areas have a wider geographical area and dispersed residences, making supervision more difficult. Many small vendors take advantage of the relatively insufficient regulatory manpower in rural areas to sell "counterfeit" food. Reader Zheng Jiangang from Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, found that most of the "counterfeit" food in rural areas is sold by nearby small commodity stores, markets, or wholesale markets, produced by small workshops without strict food safety standards. "Authentic products have high prices and low purchase quantities, and small commodity stores generally do not purchase them. In addition, rural consumers are not sensitive to the differences between different trademarks and lack the awareness of complaints when buying 'counterfeit' goods." This year, the Chengdu, Deyang, Meishan, and Ziyang Consumer Committees jointly released a rural consumption environment evaluation survey report, which showed that rural consumers are influenced by traditional consumption concepts, accustomed to frugal living, and relatively lack scientific consumption concepts and knowledge, making them easy to be deceived. Some rural areas have insufficient market supervision forces, resulting in quality problems with goods and after-sales services, which are difficult to be dealt with in a timely and effective manner, affecting the consumption confidence of rural consumers. With the rise of online shopping, "counterfeit" food has spread to online platforms. Many businesses package "knockoff" drinks and meals as bundled packages for sale, and some businesses also use promotional methods such as "collecting store to get drinks" or "low-priced additional drinks" to attract customers to purchase. Resulting in "counterfeit" food being mixed into the ranks of free gifts ordered on delivery platforms, online shopping, and live streaming rooms. As an office worker who often orders takeout, Ms. Liu, a reader in Baishan City, Jilin Province, said: "Almost every time you order takeout, you will receive a box of drinks that have never heard of a brand at the same time. According to the online publicity photos, the package is very similar to some well-known brands of drinks, and when you get it, you will find that it is a brand that has never heard of. It tastes different, and there is a smell of inferior essence." Ms. Liu said that the package is much cheaper than a single order, so she had to remark "Do not send drinks" every time, but sometimes she will receive it. Some readers have also expressed that when shopping online, consumers cannot directly observe the products and are easily misled by "counterfeit" food, leading to incorrect judgments. The booming development of online sales has also posed new challenges to cracking down on "counterfeit" food. 'Shanzhai' food poses safety hazards, disrupts market competition order, and makes it difficult for consumers to protect their rights. In fact, besides the poor taste claimed by consumers, 'shanzhai' food also hides food safety hazards. Many readers have raised questions about the nutritional composition table on the package of "cottage" food. "Some of the ingredients table shows white granulated sugar and concentrated fruit juice, but the indicators such as calories and carbohydrates in the nutritional composition table are '0'. Others can be called 'three essence' water mixed with saccharin, essence and color essence". During the investigation, the reporter found that multiple "counterfeit" drinks on food delivery platforms were not produced and sold in accordance with relevant national standards. At present, China has a national food safety standard for beverages (GB7101-2015), but many "counterfeit" mixed brand beverages have various production standard codes on their packaging. Taking one of the "Zhanran" brand iced black teas as an example, the execution standard is Q/PTFY0001S, which belongs to the enterprise standard, and relevant product information cannot be found, which does not guarantee product quality. Moreover, food labels lack production related information or even have no labels, which does not meet production standards. Ms. Lu, a reader from Guangzhou, Guangdong, reported in a letter that she received food online that was "dirty. After careful inspection, it was found that the product did not have a production license and the production company had been cancelled. It belongs to counterfeit and inferior food from unknown sources". In addition, some foods and even "porcelain" drugs are being sold. For example, "imiquimod" has been changed to "imiquimod", "Angong Niuhuang Wan" has been impersonated as "Angong Niuhuang Wan", and "bee product products" have been packaged as "life-saving drugs"... Wu Ling, a reader in Hefei, Anhui, stated that drugs have generic names and trade names, and drug names listed in national drug standards are called generic names. If they have already been used as generic names, the name cannot be used as a drug trademark. However, some businesses take advantage of loopholes to play a "borderline game" and even use ordinary counterfeit products to "knock on" legitimate drugs, misleading consumers. At the same time, consumers who purchase "counterfeit" food are facing the challenge of safeguarding their rights. On the one hand, merchants play a "borderline game" by deceiving consumers with pirated food products that are not in line with the standards; On the other hand, the cost of consumer rights protection is much higher than the product price, which makes the vast majority of consumers willing to accept bad luck and give up their rights protection in order to reduce trouble. Ms. Xu from Nanning, Guangxi told reporters that she once spent an extra 1 yuan to purchase a box of "iced black tea" beverage when placing an order, only to discover that it was a mixed brand iced black tea with a packaging color that was highly similar to a certain brand of iced black tea. Ms. Xu approached the merchant to request a refund, but was refused by the merchant on the grounds that the product title was' Flavored Iced Black Tea 'and did not promise the brand. I know they are trying to argue, "Ms. Xu said discontentedly," but this bottle of beverage is only 1 yuan, and I really don't want to put in any effort for it. Even if some "counterfeit" foods meet production standards, it will disrupt the normal market order. In fact, the production and sale of "counterfeit" food not only violates consumer rights, but also involves unfair competition. The "shanzhai" food manufacturers use low price strategies to occupy the market share of authentic products, which damages the interests of authentic enterprises. According to the Anti Unfair Competition Law, operators are not allowed to use signs that have a certain influence on others, such as product names, packaging, decoration, etc., without authorization, which may lead people to mistakenly believe that they are other people's products or have a specific connection with others. On May 10, 2021, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court ruled in the second instance that the sugar paper decoration of Shanghai Yazi Food Co., Ltd.'s products was similar to the sugar paper decoration of "Big White Rabbit" peanut nougat from Guanshengyuan Company, which would cause confusion among the relevant public and constitute infringement. However, in judicial practice, not all "counterfeit" foods that are associated with famous brands can be sued in court. Li Fan, Deputy Director of the Litigation Department of the Patent and Trademark Office of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, introduced that regular manufacturers often have standardized, clear, and traceable supply chains and sales channels, while "counterfeit" foods are often more concealed in production and supply and marketing. This situation increases the difficulty of evidence collection and law enforcement in cracking down on infringement and illegal activities. Whether it is infringement identification, administrative punishment, or cracking down on illegal activities, evidence is the most critical factor, and cracking down on 'counterfeit' food is difficult here, "said Li Fan. It is suggested to increase law enforcement and supervision, improve the traceability system, and comprehensively govern the entire chain of "counterfeit" food. In the face of the current situation where most consumers are unwilling to spend a lot of time and energy defending their rights due to the low prices of "counterfeit" food, maintaining market order still requires governments and regulatory departments at all levels to increase pre supervision and crack down severely on illegal activities of producing and selling counterfeit and inferior food. Liao Haijin, a reader from Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, is a grassroots market supervision and management personnel. He said that the current level of law enforcement and recognition standards vary in different regions. Due to the inconsistent level of law enforcement and legal discretion standards, the determination of whether "counterfeit" food constitutes infringement is inconsistent. For such cases, there are even cases where some regions accept and some regions do not accept them, resulting in regulatory loopholes. In addition, some regulatory departments in certain regions have not timely and thoroughly investigated food fraud, leading to some counterfeiters going unpunished. Currently, although the punishment for food counterfeiters in China is constantly increasing, there are still shortcomings. Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that the punishment provided by the law is relatively light, and it is difficult to form a sufficient deterrent to counterfeiters. Some counterfeiters only receive relatively light punishments such as fines and revocation of business licenses, which do not serve as a warning compared to the high profits obtained from illegal activities. They are easily driven by interests to take risks again. In order to effectively curb food fraud, it is necessary to severely punish counterfeiters. We need to improve relevant laws and regulations and raise the punishment standards for food counterfeiters. For serious food fraud, criminal penalties should be increased, not only by imposing fines and revoking business licenses, but also by holding the counterfeiters criminally responsible in accordance with the law, making the criminals pay a heavy price Liu Junhai said. Li Fan suggests that law enforcement and regulatory agencies use online sales data to analyze and trace the sellers and manufacturers of counterfeit food products, in order to obtain relevant evidence of the infringing parties and behaviors. Through information technologies such as big data analysis and artificial intelligence, regulatory authorities can more efficiently identify and track the production and sales chain of "counterfeit" food, improving law enforcement efficiency. At the same time, e-commerce platforms should establish a product review mechanism, conduct qualification review and monitoring of registered merchants, and promptly handle consumer complaints and reports. As' counterfeit 'food is different from other infringing products, it is recommended that e-commerce platforms establish dedicated complaint channels and complaint handling mechanisms for' counterfeit 'food Li Fan said. We should also strengthen social supervision and encourage consumers to actively report irregular food Wang Daihua, a reader from Lujiang County, Anhui Province, suggested establishing a reward system for reporting, providing certain rewards to consumers who report truthfully, and improving consumers' supervision enthusiasm. (New Society)