YouSiYi introduces the "Fake Brand" industry chain: You can acquire trademarks for five types of health products in Australia for 20k yuan, and receive authorization on the same day of payment.

Ask AI · How does the fake brand industry chain utilize trademark packaging to evade regulation?

Blue Whale News April 2nd Report (Reporter Zhao Meng, Hao Yan) Recently, media exposed that the health supplement Australia Usee was once wildly sold on major e-commerce platforms for tens of millions, but is actually a “fake brand” that has been “packaged”: shipped from a bonded warehouse in Guangzhou, with the origin listed as Australia. A reporter’s investigation found that its Australian address is a car repair shop…

In fact, the “fake brand packaging industry chain” has long been operating smoothly in the e-commerce sector.

Paying from 20k yuan to buy a trademark, sales claim: the most expensive in Europe and America, authorized on the same day of payment

According to CCTV News, the leading brand of lutein sales on e-commerce platforms, “Australia Usee,” claims its origin as Australia, but its so-called Australian company address has no health product factory or storefront, only an auto repair station. This so-called “imported health supplement” brand is actually a carefully planned operation by Hangzhou Suoxiang Marketing Planning Co., Ltd. According to staff involved, the promoter company packages a Guangzhou company as an Australian health supplement company with precise nutritional positioning, and uses grass-planting notes, live streamers, and other methods to turn it into the top-selling brand on e-commerce platforms.

Blue Whale News found that many companies provide such services, including some that specialize in overseas trademark resale. Investigation revealed that these overseas trademark sales companies are often packaged as “Brand Management Co., Ltd.” A sales staff member told Blue Whale News that they currently hold various overseas brand trademarks, “All trademarks are registered with the same name in China and abroad, covering most countries and categories. It mainly depends on your needs. Usually, trademarks from Europe and America are more expensive, while New Zealand and Australia are more cost-effective. As long as you pay in full, you can get the authorization for the fake brand trademark on the same day.”

A trademark product quotation sheet obtained by Blue Whale News shows that purchasing a Class 5 health product trademark from New Zealand or Australia costs between 18,000 yuan and 70k yuan. The price difference is usually related to the trademark name: “Some trademarks are neat and short, easy to read and remember, or contain keywords with meaningful implications, which are definitely more expensive than random letter combinations.” Although all trademarks in this quotation are new, their names’ combinations and formats always seem familiar, with common elements like Dr (doctor), Nature (nature), Nutri (nutrition), etc.

Besides price, staff also detailed how to comprehensively package Australian trademarks. She suggested not to use mainland Chinese companies directly as the trademark transferees, recommending setting up a Hong Kong company for protection. “The legal person is in English, unlike mainland companies where you can see everything on Tianyancha. Registering a shell company in Hong Kong is very simple, costing around 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, and it can be done in about a week,” the intermediary explained.

When mentioning the exposure of Usee, the staff also said that this is obviously a professional operation, and now that they are under investigation, it depends on whether their chain is complete. If not, it might not withstand scrutiny.

Additionally, Blue Whale News learned that overseas trademark resale is common not only in health supplements but also in cosmetics, furniture, shoes, and clothing fields.

Several top streamers promote Usee, and some have already promised “advance compensation”

Usee has become popular in a short period and has topped sales on multiple e-commerce platforms largely due to many streamers’ product promotions and short video recommendations.

According to incomplete statistics by Blue Whale News, several top streamers and celebrities, including Zhang Xiaohui, Yu Hui Tongxing, Yi Nengjing, Li Ruotong, Sun Jian, Ming Dao, and others, have promoted it. Blue Whale News found through third-party platforms that over the past month, more than a hundred streamers with over 100k followers have promoted it.

Under public pressure, on April 2nd, some internet celebrities issued refund notices. Zhang Xiaohui issued an apology statement via her company account “Rose is a Rose,” promising that consumers can contact the official customer service of the purchase platform within 15 working days from the date of this announcement. All refunds will be processed as “advance compensation,” with refunds issued within 7 working days after order verification. Yi Nengjing’s customer service team stated that full refunds would be provided for orders; Li Ruotong announced an immediate full refund; Xia Shiwen’s live team announced advance compensation and a triple refund; Sun Jian and Yu Hui Tongxing’s teams expressed gratitude for feedback and said they are verifying the issues.

Blue Whale News inquired whether “Yu Hui Tongxing” customer service has a corresponding after-sales plan, and the customer service promptly sent a statement from “Australia Usee” regarding related reports, saying, “The feedback has been received, and we will pay close attention. Currently, compensation is not supported.”