Chinese officials have made a major discovery of fake cosmetics, with goods totalling approximately $120m.
Reuters reports the haul was discovered in Taizhou, a city on the eastern coast of the Zhejiang province.
Local authorities were said to have posted news of the counterfeit product bust on 15 February via Chinese social media site Sina Weibo.
The raids themselves reportedly took place earlier in February and involved seven dens comprising more than 1,200 boxes of fake make-up.
China has attempted for many years to crack down on counterfeit cosmetics, spurred by concerns over product safety, and damage to legitimate businesses and their reputations.
However, with counterfeit products becoming ever more sophisticated and offenders hard to trace, the issue still poses a serious problem.
Last year, Alibaba’s Founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma caused a stir when he claimed that the problem with counterfeit goods is that often fake products are as good as, or better than, genuine products.
At the company’s Investor Day he said: “We would love to work with the branded companies. We cannot solve the problem 100% because it’s fighting against human instinct. But we can solve the problem better than any government, any organisation, any people in the world.”
