Research On The Application Of Punitive Damage System To The Phenomenon Of "Professional Counterfeiting" In China

The phenomenon of “Professional anti-counterfeiting” is characterized by the double dishonesty of operators and buyers,which makes it different from ordinary consumer rights protection.Litigation cases triggered by such phenomena are widespread throughout the country,and the increase is huge,but the courts across the country have not reached a unified standard for handling professional anti-counterfeiting phenomena,and even the results are completely opposite.The court’s judgment standards directly play a role in guiding the value orientation of the masses and regulating people’s behavior.The vagueness of the court’s judgment standards directly affects the predictability of law enforcement and the credibility of the court.In order to clarify the judicial response path of such cases and promote the establishment of a culture of good faith,this article selected cases involving professional anti-counterfeiting in many high courts across the country through the “China Judgments Online” for empirical analysis,and explored the improvement of professional anti-counterfeiting phenomenon and the improvement of the punitive compensation system path.In the first part of the article,starting from two very similar cases,the facts of the two cases are similar,but in the end they got completely opposite verdicts.There are two obvious controversies in the spark of the collision of the two cases: one is Whether professional counterfeiters belong to the category of consumers,and the second is whether the price fraud of merchants can constitute fraud against professional counterfeiters.It can be seen that the judicial response to cases involving professional anti-counterfeiting in my country’s judicial practice is not the same,and no unified judgment has been reached.Not only are there differences in judicial practice,but also in academia.The second part of the article,first of all,an overview of the phenomenon of professional anti-counterfeiting,introduces the concept and characteristics of the phenomenon of occupational anti-counterfeiting.The phenomenon of "professional anti-counterfeiting" is a group of professional anti-counterfeiting people driven by high profits.It is an objective phenomenon formed by anti-counterfeiting claims in the form of litigation or reporting.The characteristics of the "professional anti-counterfeiting" phenomenon are: the driving force of the purchase purpose,the repeated purchase of a large number of similar products,proactive attack and the tendency of behavior to be patterned and teamed;,An overview of the punitive damages system.The punitive damages system is different from compensatory damages to compensate for actual losses.It is intended to compensate for specific tort liabilities and breach of contract liabilities that exceed the actual damages.The punitive damages system has The function of encouraging private relief in the market economy,dissipating consumer dissatisfaction,and taking into account the interests of operators and consumer groups;finally,analyzing the phenomenon of professional anti-counterfeiting and applying a punitive compensation system can curb counterfeiting and make up for consumption to a certain extent.The insufficiency of passive protection of rights and the positive effects of cooperating with public power to supervise the market also have negative effects such as disrupting market order,touching high-tension lines of extortion and consuming large amounts of judicial resources.In the third part of the article,by searching the keyword "professional anti-counterfeiting" on the “China Judgments Online”,we selected 562 civil judgments involving punitive damages for professional anti-counterfeiting that were tried by the higher courts in all regions that met the requirements,and applied penalties to professional anti-counterfeiting phenomena.Conduct empirical analysis of the compensation system,explore the current situation that the punitive compensation system in China’s professional anti-counterfeiting phenomenon has not formed a unified judgment standard,and analyze the existing problems: one is the identification of professional counterfeiters,and the other is whether professional counterfeiters are identified The identification issues that belong to the category of consumers,the third is the identification of "fraud",and the fourth is the allocation of burden of proof.The fourth part of the article explores and perfects the judicial response to the problems in the application of punitive compensation system to the professional anti-counterfeiting phenomenon proposed in the third part.First,it is necessary to formulate uniform rules to clarify the number of lawsuits in a specific period,and then comprehensively consider the purchase method,quantity,and frequency of purchasers to identify professional counterfeiters;second,in order to better regulate consumer rights,professional counterfeiters should Recognized as a consumer;third,in the non-food and pharmaceutical fields,the behavior of the business operator must not make the professional counterfeiter misunderstand and make a false purchase intention,that is,the behavior of the business operator does not constitute a fraud against the professional counterfeiter Therefore,the punitive compensation system is not applicable.Fourth,in the food and pharmaceutical fields,the anti-counterfeiting phenomenon of benign and vicious occupations is distinguished by whether the object of anti-counterfeiting is a substantive food safety issue.There is speculative anti-counterfeiting in anti-counterfeiting,that is,cases where the same purchaser is repeatedly sued for the same type of reason.It is recommended to support only one of these cases and reject other similar cases;clearly assign the burden of proof,and the purchaser has done it When the basic burden of proof proves that the goods sold by the business operator are defective,if the business further proves that the goods sold by the business operator do not have substantive food safety issues,the punitive compensation system should no longer be applied.