Crocodiles in Hong Kong
Recently, a consumer, Mr. Zhou, caused a wide-ranging discussion among netizens because of the face problem caused by his purchase of crocodiles in Hong Kong. Due to the power of netizens, consumers have been returning the crocodiles in Hong Kong on the grounds that the price is too high and does not match the brand value. With the continuous development of the crocodile "return" incident in Hong Kong, the scene of "easy return" gradually appeared. "The salesman of Hong Kong crocodile store directly arranged the return procedure without even looking at the returned goods"; It takes two hands to make it work. A discussion about "Hong Kong crocodiles are easy to return" has become a continuation of the "crocodile dispute" several years ago. The fact that the trademark of Hong Kong crocodiles in Chinese mainland has been rejected by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has also been peeled off by netizens layer by layer like onions. The problem of "easy return door" has also attracted the attention of crocodile consumers.
It turns out that there are many CROCODILE brands in the domestic market at present, except Crocodile mentioned by the victim Mr. Zhou, there are mainly two. One is the French crocodile ("LACOSTE"), which was founded by Rene Lacoste, a world-famous tennis player and Frenchman nicknamed "Crocodile". French crocodile has always been a sponsor of tennis matches because it originated from a famous tennis player, and it has a considerable reputation in the field of sports brands; The other is the internationally renowned brand "CARTELO", which is the same as the French crocodile. The founder of the brand is a Chinese-Dr. Chen Xianjin. He combined the characters of "car)+ telephone)+ unisex (no gender, O means no gender) and combined them with his original classic crocodile graphics to form the present card.
According to the China Trademark Online sponsored by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, as of 21, the registration of new trademarks of Hong Kong crocodiles in China Administration for Industry and Commerce has been rejected for decades; However, Hong Kong crocodiles have successfully entered major department stores in China by confusing the audience and making their prices lower than those of French crocodiles and Singapore crocodiles. Although the law protects successfully registered trademarks, businesses that have not successfully registered trademarks can enter the market for sale, but they are afraid that consumers will sue and cause investigation by the Industrial and Commercial Bureau. Therefore, the crocodile "easy return door" incident in Hong Kong has attracted widespread attention.
According to many netizens who participated in the discussion and broke the news, Hong Kong Crocodile is actually a brand that can only be operated in Hong Kong. This brand was originally owned by the Chen family. After the family turmoil, the market operation was split. At the same time, the five brothers agreed to register and use the crocodile trademark (that is, Singapore Katile Crocodile) owned by Dr. Chen Xianjin in their exclusive fields, and they were not allowed to use it across fields. In order to further develop the Hong Kong market, the Chen brothers established crocodile shirt company in Hong Kong in 1961, paving the way for its future listing. The trademark of Hong Kong crocodile was transferred to crocodile shirt company, which was mainly run by Mr. Chen Xianjun. In 1987, Mr. Chen Xianjun transferred the equity of the crocodile shirt company he controlled to Hong Kong Lixin Group. Since then, the crocodile shirt company has been separated from the Chen family. In order to be large-scale, the brand image and quality of Hong Kong crocodile brand gradually declined.
With the continuous development of the "easy-to-return door" incident of Hong Kong crocodiles, the fact that Hong Kong crocodiles "illegally sell, confuse the audience and deceive consumers" has been made public: Hong Kong crocodiles only use the brand influence of French crocodiles and Singapore crocodiles in consumers' minds to arbitrarily inflate the price of their products while confusing the audience.
A few years ago, French crocodiles filed a lawsuit in Beijing for trademark infringement of Hong Kong crocodiles, although it ended in a handshake. However, as time goes by, although the brand image of CROCODILEs with high quality, LACOSTE and identity is deeply rooted in people's hearts, many true and false crocodiles such as French crocodile, Singapore crocodile and Hong Kong crocodile are still in parallel, which also makes more and more consumers feel at a loss. Many consumers originally wanted to buy French crocodiles or Singapore crocodiles, but in this confusing market environment, they fell into the trap of Hong Kong crocodiles, eventually causing their own material and spiritual losses.
At present, information asymmetry is an important reason for consumers to go into a misunderstanding and fall into a trap. For consumers, most consumers don't understand that CROCODILE in Hong Kong is actually an "illegal trademark" in the mainland market, and it has been rejected by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce for several times. The French crocodile and the Singaporean crocodile are the brands that have successfully registered their trademarks in Chinese mainland and obtained legal business qualifications, and they are the "crocodile" brands that have won a lot of good reputation, are truly connotative, tasteful and show their identity. With the development of the "easy return door" incident, more and more consumers gradually understand this inside story. As a result, consumers are constantly questioning Hong Kong crocodiles: Since they don't have such a high price, why do we have to pay a price that doesn't match them? Knowing the details may save some of the losses, but aren't more consumers who don't know the inside story deceived in vain?
Who should supervise and protect consumers' interests when Hong Kong crocodiles cheat consumers?
In fact, in the harmonious market theme environment of "honesty-based and standardized management", in order to completely eradicate the illegal business behavior of Hong Kong crocodiles, firstly, more and more open and transparent information channels must be established, which is an important condition for the whole society to supervise; Secondly, all businesses should take a warning and actively reflect on the illegal operation of Hong Kong crocodiles.
in short, to protect consumers' interests, there are still many tasks in the future that need the efforts of regulators, legitimate businesses, social media and consumers.