Racket selling designer goods online busted

Kota Kinabalu: An operation selling fake designer goods online was busted in the city here after enforcement personnel from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Department raided the store.

State Consumer Affairs Director Georgie Abas said Tuesday that seven people involved in sales of the goods were arrested in the raid on Monday.

He said a total of 2,926 sports shoes, bags and jerseys bearing brand names like Nike and Adidas were seized during the operations.

He estimated the value of the goods at more than RM100,000.

Abas said the fake goods were kept in a store above the premises of a business that sold branded goods.

However, he said, none of the fake goods were displayed in the shop below, which was apparently operating a legitimate business.

“Our investigations found that the fake goods were only sold online,” he said, adding that the department had kept the place under surveillance for nearly a week before moving in on Monday.

He said the people arrested, who worked for the business below the store, told the department that the goods came from a supplier in Singapore.

“They told us that they only started to operate in February and used social media to sell the goods within the Kota Kinabalu area,” he said.

The owners of the premises are being investigated under Section 102(1)(c) of the Trademarks Act 2019 for possession of goods with wrong use of a brand name.

Those convicted could be fined up to RM10,000 for each item, or jailed not more than three years, or both.

In a separate case, two businessmen were fined RM4,400 and RM4,950 by the Sessions Court here on Monday for possession of 87 units of fake Gillette shaving blades.

They were charged under Section 102(1)(c) of the Trademarks Act. Both traders pleaded guilty and paid their respective fines.