Boss Wang spent 2000 yuan to buy 400 3M masks for the employees in the labor insurance store. Unexpectedly, after opening the package, he found that the mask he bought was different from the one he bought before. He suspected that they were fakes and reported them to the market supervision administration.
After receiving the report, the Market Supervision Administration appraised the masks bought by Boss Wang. The appraisal results showed that the masks were all fake and shoddy products. After investigation, the labor insurance store sold fake masks totaling 2,700 yuan, making a profit 1630 yuan. Subsequently, the Market Supervision Administration decided to impose a fine of 65,438 yuan +0.78 million yuan on the labor insurance store and ordered it to stop the infringement.
The labor insurance store thinks that the punishment is too heavy, so it brings a lawsuit to the court and requests to cancel the punishment. The reasons are as follows:
First, subjectively, they don't realize that the masks they sell are goods that infringe on the exclusive right to use registered trademarks, and should not be punished according to the provisions of the Trademark Law;
Second, their business amount is only 2700 yuan, but they are fined 178000 yuan, which is 48 times of their business amount, which is too heavy;
Third, Article 27 of the Administrative Punishment Law stipulates that if the illegal act is minor and corrected in time, and no harmful consequences are caused, no administrative punishment will be imposed. Although they sell infringing products, they can be used normally and will not cause particularly serious consequences.
The market supervision administration responded to this:
First, the sale of goods with counterfeit registered trademarks does not require the knowledge of the parties, and the labor insurance store cannot provide normal purchase channels and cannot explain the source of masks;
Second, during the epidemic, fake masks were sold in labor insurance stores, which caused great hidden dangers to the prevention and control of the epidemic and should be severely punished.
In this case, the labor insurance store can't provide the normal purchase source procedures for selling infringing products, which means that they should know that there are problems with this batch of products, make a profit 1630 yuan, and impose a fine of 17800 yuan. There is no maximum penalty, and the circumstances of the case have been taken into account.
After trial, the court held that the facts of selling infringing fake masks in labor insurance stores were clear and the evidence was conclusive, which should be punished, but there were also the following cases of lighter punishment:
First, for the first time, the labor insurance store was able to actively cooperate with the investigation of the market supervision administration and voluntarily return the mask money to the buyer, without causing serious harmful consequences.
Second, labor insurance stores are individual industrial and commercial households, with limited business scale and quota. Judging from the current policy of supporting and protecting the development of private enterprises, it is not appropriate to impose high fines on them.
How to judge the specific case? The high-level fine given by the market supervision administration to the labor insurance store is obviously too heavy, but it is not enough to punish the low-level fine. Considering the facts, nature, circumstances and harmful consequences of illegal activities in labor insurance shops, it is more reasonable and appropriate to impose a fine in a moderate range. To sum up, the court revoked the administrative punishment of the Market Supervision Administration and changed it to a fine of 80,000 yuan.