Guardia di Finanza: over 10,000 fake Labubu soft toys seized in Palermo
Financial police uncover vast counterfeiting network of Labubu soft toys, sold as originals at bargain prices
The financiers of the Palermo Provincial Command, thanks to a capillary investigative activity conducted in the field of combating counterfeiting, seized over 10,000 Labubu (of which 3,000 at a toy shop inside a well-known shopping centre in Palermo). The soft toys, originally designed by a Hong Kong artist and sold worldwide by the giant in the production and sale of Pop Mart toys, have quickly become a real trend, creating a rush to buy them after being worn on social media by international music and film stars.
Investigation of counterfeit Labubu
In particular, the Green Baskets of the Pronto Impiego Group, through an analysis of the distribution and sale of toys in Palermo and by virtue of the constant monitoring of the social profiles created by operators in the sector, identified seven shops that also had the iconic soft toys, focusing above all on the sale price, considering that the originals, depending on the type and size, are sold with a starting price of around 35 euro up to several thousand euro for the less popular or limited edition pieces.
Counterfeiting in Palermo
Following the preliminary inspections carried out in the identified toy shops, the financiers selected seven of them, whose prices, workmanship and packaging of the products raised particular suspicions as to their originality and provenance. The inspections carried out at the seven shops revealed that in almost all cases the Labubu were perfect imitations of the originals, made from lower quality materials but reproduced with such care that it would be difficult for an ordinary purchaser to distinguish genuine from fake.
Fake Labubu were difficult to distinguish from the originals
The products, purchased without invoice from unofficial channels or from e-commerce platforms, mostly part of the large-scale retail trade, were sold at prices slightly lower than those charged for the originals and bore logo, colours and packaging very similar to the originals, often with non-compliant or completely forged labels and identification codes. These elements, combined with the fact that, in some cases, the shops selling them were specialised in original toys of all kinds and of the best-known brands, could certainly lead the potential buyer to believe that they were genuine products sold at bargain prices.
The shop with the largest number of fake Labubu was part of a well-known distribution chain
In one case in particular, the Green Berets intervened in a toy shop belonging to a well-known distribution chain and located in a city shopping centre. It was in this very shop that the major number of fake dolls was found, as many as 3,000 between the shop and the warehouse, where many cartons full of both bagged Labubu and packaging boxes were found, a clear sign that the shop employees were also creating the surprise packages, which have become very popular thanks to their distribution via blind boxes, i.e. surprise boxes, that have ended up creating a real addiction to buying them for collectors all over the world.
