The Intellectual Property Court yesterday upheld the conviction of entertainer Ting Hsiao-chin (丁小芹) for selling counterfeit luxury handbags, but reduced her sentence to two-and-a-half years in prison, in the second ruling in the case.
Singer-turned-actress Ting, 39, last year had been given a three-and-a-half-year term by the New Taipei District Court for aggravated fraud in the first ruling.
Ting’s lawyer appealed and the case was turned over to the New Taipei City-based Intellectual Property Court, which convicted her of fraud and breaches of the Trademark Act (商標法).
The Intellectual Property Court said Ting’s offenses had harmed Taiwan’s international image and undermined its efforts to protect intellectual property rights, and that she continued to defraud people despite her 2013 conviction for selling a fake Chanel handbag, for which she had been sentenced to four months in prison.
It also ordered that Ting hold a news conference to make a public apology for her wrongdoing, and to reach a settlement with the three companies and 12 people who were the plaintiffs in the case.
Prosecutors said that starting in August 2015, Ting registered accounts on several online shopping sites, offering Chanel, Fendi, Stella McCartney and other luxury handbags for sale, along with shoes, accessories and cosmetics by well-known brands.
Ting claimed she had bought the items in Europe, and offered the brands’ authenticity cards, but buyers said their purchases turned out to be counterfeits, and some had sought experts to verify the whether the items were real or not.
The 12 people said they paid Ting a total of NT$170,000 for what turned out to be fakes.
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