CHINA: China's thriving business in pirate Prada, dodgy Dolce & Gabbana and fake Fendi may soon be at an end with news that authorities are closing markets and brand-owners are winning their lawsuits to protect their trade marks.
Piracy is a multi-billion-euro business in China, and the vast majority of the designer clothes seen on the streets or DVDs for sale are fake. The government is keen to be seen to be doing something about piracy as part of efforts to boost its international image and has launched a crackdown.
In recent days Shanghai city authorities have closed a downtown market famous for knocked-off designer gear. Xiangyang Road market was just off the main shopping street of Huaihai Road, and the bogus Burberry handbags and fake Rolexes sold were beloved by tourists, aspiring locals and wannabe fashion icons alike. But the crackdown is part of a wider government campaign to show that China is serious about stopping piracy.
The closure of the Shanghai market comes soon after more bad news for the pirates. A Beijing court last week awarded its first copyright damages against the capital's famous Silk Alley market, which also peddles pirate wares, after five of the world's top brands, Burberry, Chanel, Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, sued the landlord.
The landlord and vendors have been ordered to pay nearly €11,000 in compensation in what is being seen as a test case.
Established in 1985, Silk Alley is described as the third-best-
known tourist destination in the national capital after the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
Also this week, the American coffee chain Starbucks won its case against a Chinese rival called Xingbake, the Chinese translation of Starbucks.
Wandering through Silk Alley, which is near the US embassy and was recently completely refurbished to be more of a mall than a market, there is little sign of a crackdown, and most of the big brands are still on open display.
Some of the ripoffs are obvious: Adidas spelt Adiddass or Hugo Boss-labelled shirts with Ralph Lauren logos on the breast, for example.
For other items, such as amazingly good copies of Hermes handbags, touts approach you and bring you to nearby laneways to show you the really good stuff.
Local vendors believe the crackdown will merely force them to sell more discreetly.
Many goods are produced in factories in the provinces, often with local government backing, so production is unlikely to slow.
The crackdown has extended to all areas of piracy. Local DVD shops, which used to openly sell a good selection of the latest Hollywood releases for around €1, now keep the new DVDs in the back of the shop, and you have to ask to see the best merchandise. They are only put on open display in the evening when the shopkeepers figure the counterfeit police will be finished work.
Little wonder that the US Motion Picture Association believes 95 per cent of its members' products were pirated in China last year and they lost hundreds of millions of euro in revenue to the counterfeiters.
Some people say counterfeiting is rife because China is a Confucian society, which holds imitation to be the sincerest form of flattery. But increasingly the notion that people are just out to make a swift buck is taking hold.
In a country where the rural daily wage is just over 70 cent, there is little general sympathy for the concerns of multinationals about the devaluation of their brands. But there is growing concern about the piracy of items like medicines, baby formula and aircraft parts.