If your company sells goods online and some of the stock turns out to carry fake brand marks, the problem is criminal as well as civil. Under section 49 of the Trade Marks Act 1998, importing, selling, offering or exposing for sale, or possessing for trade goods to which a registered trade mark has been falsely applied is an offence. The penalty is a fine of up to S$10,000 for each item, capped at S$100,000 in total, imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both. The Police enforce this through the Criminal Investigation Department, including raids on online sellers. Separately, the brand owner can sue for infringement. Stop selling the goods, keep the stock and the records, and get legal advice.
Stop selling the moment you have doubts. The statutory defence depends on what you knew and did: taking all reasonable precautions, having no reason to suspect the mark was not genuine, and giving the prosecution all the information you have about your supplier. Every sale made after you had reason to suspect weakens that defence. Quarantine the stock, keep the supplier’s records, and do not destroy anything.
What the offence covers
- Who: anyone who imports, sells, offers or exposes for sale, or has in their possession for trade or manufacture, goods bearing a falsely applied registered trade mark. An online shop, a marketplace seller or a company that only imports and holds stock can all be covered.
- Penalty: a fine of up to S$10,000 per item (up to S$100,000 in aggregate), up to 5 years’ imprisonment, or both.
- Consent: if the accused says the trade mark owner consented, the accused bears the burden of proving that consent.
- Forfeiture: after a conviction, the court must generally order the goods to be forfeited and destroyed unless there are exceptional circumstances.
- Defence: the accused may prove that, having taken all reasonable precautions, they had no reason to suspect the mark was not genuine and, on demand, gave the prosecution all the information in their power about the supplier; or that they otherwise acted innocently.
Enforcement is active. In August 2025 the Police arrested four people for the online sale of counterfeit goods, after raids that seized more than 1,100 items of bags, wallets, sunglasses and accessories with an estimated street value of over S$99,000.
Warning signs a seller should not ignore
- A supplier who offers branded goods far below the normal wholesale price, or describes them as “AAA”, “mirror quality” or “replica”.
- No authorised distributor agreement, no traceable invoices, and payment only in cash or to personal accounts.
- Complaints from customers about quality, packaging or missing serial numbers.
- A takedown notice from a marketplace, or a letter from the brand owner’s lawyers.
What to do now
- Stop listing and selling the affected products on every channel.
- Quarantine the stock. Keep it, labelled and counted. Do not destroy, return or sell it off cheaply; it may be evidence, and disposing of it can look like concealment.
- Gather the supplier trail: purchase orders, invoices, chat messages, payment records, shipping documents and what you were told about authenticity.
- Get legal advice before responding to the Police, the brand owner or the platform. The criminal and civil sides interact.
- Cooperate with any investigation. Giving the prosecution full information about the supplier is part of the statutory defence.
- Reconcile the books. Work out how many units were bought and sold, and the revenue. Both the Police and the brand owner will ask.
- Fix the sourcing process: buy only from authorised distributors and keep proof of authenticity for each consignment.
The civil claim from the brand owner
A brand owner can sue for infringement and, in counterfeit cases, claim statutory damages. The company’s response should be handled by a lawyer. See how to respond to a trade mark infringement letter and the Court of Appeal’s approach in Louis Vuitton v Ng Hoe Seng on statutory damages. Where the claim is weak or overstated, see groundless threats of infringement proceedings.
Example
Example only, not a client case. A small e-commerce company buys a mixed lot of branded sunglasses from an overseas supplier at about a third of the usual wholesale price. After two customers complain that the lenses carry no serial markings, the director pauses the listings, counts and boxes the 340 unsold pairs, and saves the supplier’s chat messages and invoices. The company takes legal advice, which confirms that the goods are likely counterfeit. When a letter arrives from the brand owner’s lawyers, the company’s lawyer responds with the sales figures and the supplier’s details. The company changes its purchasing policy to authorised distributors only.
Frequently asked questions
We said “inspired by” in the listing. Is that enough?
No. The offence turns on goods bearing a falsely applied registered trade mark, not on how the listing describes them.
Is the director personally exposed?
Police investigations focus on the people who actually import, hold and sell the goods. A director who runs the online shop personally can be investigated and charged. See director liability for non-compliance.
Does registering our own shop name protect us?
No. A business name or company name approval does not authorise the use of someone else’s trade mark. More on the company law hub.
Sold goods that may be counterfeit?
If your company has been raided, received a brand owner’s letter or found doubtful stock, contact the Raffles Corporate Services team at [email protected] or on WhatsApp at +65 8501 7133 or +65 9018 0072. We will help you reconcile purchases, stock and sales, organise the supplier records, and set up proper purchasing controls. For the criminal investigation and the brand owner’s claim, we will refer you to a firm on our panel of Singapore law firms that handles intellectual property matters. Raffles Corporate Services is a corporate services provider, not a law firm, and this article is general information, not legal advice.
Willie Tan, Raffles Corporate Services