Hong Kong customs seizes bogus mooncake haul with Peninsula, Maxim’s logos ahead of Mid-Autumn Festival
Authorities confiscated 49 boxes of counterfeit mooncakes and arrested three suspects earlier this month after posing as online buyersTraders offered bogus goods with packaging imitating five-star hotel group and prominent catering company, selling products below regular prices to snare buyersCrime in Hong KongClifford LoPublished: 3:23pm, 20 Sep, 2023Why you can trust SCMP
Hong Kong customs has seized 49 boxes of counterfeit mooncakes bearing forged trademarks from the five-star Peninsula hotel group and catering company Maxim’s in the run-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Customs and Excise Department on Wednesday said officers had acted on complaints from the trademark owners and posed as online buyers, leading to the arrest of three residents – a man and two women – earlier this month.
Senior Inspector Chow Lai-man of the department’s intellectual property technology crime investigation unit said the 49 boxes of knock-off mooncakes seized in the operation were estimated to be worth about HK$16,000 (US$2,046).
The bogus treats would undergo testing at a government laboratory to determine if they were potentially harmful, she said. Chow added that customs was still investigating the source of the counterfeit goods.
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The suspected counterfeiters earlier claimed to be selling Peninsula’s mini egg custard mooncakes and Maxim’s lava custard mooncakes, accepting online orders and conducting face-to-face transactions.