FIR against Club Factory and its Directors for sale of fake products

E-commerce marketplace Club Factory is in the limelight for having delivered fake products on its platform. A case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against has been filed by Bengaluru police against the company and a couple of its executives – Future India Private Limited, Jialun Li and Garvit Aggarwal.

Future India Private Limited is the Indian entity of Club Factory. Li and Aggarwal are directors of the Chinese e-commerce company.

The complaint pertains to a pair of Nike shoes, Oakley sunglasses and hair oil ordered by a consumer from Club Factory on January 15.

After receipt of the goods, the goods were found to be fake. A nearby Nike outlet where the customer took the shoes also confirmed that the shoes from Club Factory were fake. The customer immediately filed FIR against Club Factory.

During the preliminary investigation, the police sent all the three products to their respective authorised outlets and learnt that all items were fake.

The investigating team has asked the respective brand teams of the three products to file separate cases under the Copyright Act. The police highlighted the fact that Club Factory receives 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh orders per day and there is a possibility of selling several counterfeit products via the online portal.

Earlier, Club Factory and one of its employees were restrained by the Gurugram court from sharing, divulging and using its rival Snapdeal’s trade secrets, financial data and confidential information.

Apart from selling fake products across categories such as cosmetics, watches, perfumes and footwear, the platform had also been labelling them as “CF Verified” to garner the trust of consumers.

Founded by Vincent Lou, Club Factory made its entry in India in 2016 and since then it has been surrounded by controversies.

Last year, Delhi’s custom department confiscated the goods Club Factory has imported from its parent company for non compliance with Customs Act 1962.