China seizes $3m of fake cosmetics

Chinese police have seized more than $3m (€2.4m) worth of fake cosmetics including batches of counterfeit Botox.

Authorities took action after Allergan, which produces Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA), complained that online retailers in China were using its brand to sell fakes, Global Times reports. Criminals bought locally produced treatments and re-packaged them as expensive branded imports.

"Foreign brand names always have a better reputation," a staffer at Beijing Yezi Plastic and Surgery Hospital said. This reputation carries a price premium that allowed the counterfeiters to sell re-packaged products at many times their original value.

Police dealt a blow to the network by arresting the chief executive of a company allegedly engaged in counterfeiting and seizing fake cosmetics worth $3.1m. The challenge now is to stop others filling the void left by the anti-counterfeiting action.

"Government departments should also enhance supervision of the cosmetics industry," Zhang Yongjian, director of the Research Center for Development and Regulation of Food and Drug Industry under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.