The situation
A Spanish footwear brand watched counterfeit versions of its best-selling lines appear simultaneously in European marketplaces, Middle Eastern wholesale channels and Chinese e-commerce listings — at prices below the brand's own factory cost. Test purchases confirmed dedicated production rather than overruns: the fakes used original-quality molds with deliberate small variations. The brand held Chinese trademark registrations but had never activated them; there was no customs recordal, no monitoring, and no enforcement history, which counterfeiters read accurately as a green light.
What we did
- Activated the border first. We completed GACC customs recordal for the brand's core marks, with product identification guides and trained contact procedures, turning every Chinese port into a checkpoint. Recordal is what prompts customs officers to proactively detain suspect shipments rather than wait for complaints.
- Traced the source. Licensed investigators worked backward from test purchases and freight documentation to two production workshops in Dongguan and a wholesale stocking point in Guangzhou.
- Administrative raids. Rather than slow civil litigation, we filed complaints with the local market supervision bureaus, coordinating simultaneous raids on both workshops so neither could warn the other. Molds, finished stock and order books were seized; the order books fed follow-up actions against two downstream wholesalers.
- Civil follow-through. With administrative findings in hand, we extracted settlement payments and signed cease-and-desist undertakings with liquidated-damages clauses from the workshop operators — making any repeat offense a fast, pre-priced claim.
The result
In the program's first twelve months: approximately 38,000 counterfeit pairs seized across the raids and eleven customs detentions at Shenzhen and Nansha ports; administrative fines imposed on both workshops; settlements recovered that covered a substantial share of the enforcement budget; and the brand's monitored online counterfeit listings fell by over 70%. The program now runs as an annual retainer combining customs liaison, marketplace takedowns and a raid reserve — enforcement in China rewards systems, not one-off victories.
Results depend on the specific facts of each matter; past outcomes do not guarantee similar results.