Hong Kong customs officers have raided three chain stores after discovering the outlets had claw machines filled with about 3,000 fake brand-name perfume products instead of toys – a find considered to be the first of its kind for the department. The fakes sported luxury brand labels such as Chanel and Dior, with the goods having an estimated street value of HK$120,000 (US$15,400), the Customs and Excise Department said on Wednesday. According to the department, six claw machines worth about HK$60,000 were also confiscated in the operation.
A shop owner and her female employee were arrested following the seizure of the counterfeit products in Tuesday’s raids on the three claw machine stores in Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan. “These machines, storing fake brand-name perfumes, were usually placed near the front door of the shops in an effort to attract customers,” Senior Inspector Chau Hoi-man of customs’ intellectual property investigation bureau said. He said the seized perfumes came in small bottles that official brands did not use.
“Customers were told that the perfumes were genuine samples sold at a lower price,” Chau said. He said it was the first time that customs officers had discovered claw machine stores offering fake brand-name perfumes. A source familiar with the incident said a bottle of the fake perfume was worth between HK$30 and HK$50, with each game for these claw machines costing HK$5.
The counterfeits went for about 20 to 50 per cent of genuine produc.