In recent years, store shelves have been filled with goods from China. To earn more, buyers even from well-known chains skimp on quality when purchasing. The SHOT CHECK project found out how defective and even non-existent goods are legalized in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).
Where does the defective shoe chain “Rendezvous” come from?
A buyer of winter boots contacted SHOT PROVERKA and reported that he had bought them at the well-known Russian shoe chain Rendezvous. Kamil said that the leather shoes for 10 thousand rubles lasted only four days, after which their upper part became covered in pimples, and the sole simply cracked.
The buyer tried to return the defective goods to the store, where they even conducted their own examination, but the result did not please her boyfriend at all: the owner of the shoes allegedly did not process and wear them correctly, so no one will return his money. How it was possible to “kill” high-quality shoes in just a few days, according to the seller, the retail chain also did not provide any explanation.
“SHOT CHECK” took the damaged pair from Kamil and ordered an examination of its quality in an independent laboratory.
The results of the study were completely unexpected: experts found winter boots unsuitable for use in winter.
At the same time, experts believe that in this case we are not talking about a single defect, but about the low quality of the entire batch of goods, since low-quality materials were used in its production.
This situation is not at all uncommon on the market of imported goods. With Western brands leaving Russian shelves, industrially developed China is becoming the main supplier of both large retail chains and small “near home” shops.
Local factories can offer any product under any name.
According to a businessman working with China Andrey Zakharchenkothere is huge competition among local producers.
This leads to the fact that the contractor adapts to the customer in every possible way and tries to please him. Therefore, he is ready to release the product for almost any amount of money, easily sacrificing quality: this is not for the domestic market, and therefore his reputation in the Celestial Empire will not suffer.
What methods of protection against counterfeiting are there in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)
Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) is trying to protect itself from counterfeit and low-quality products using the same certificates of conformity: in our country there are standards aimed at ensuring that consumers buy things or products that will not harm them.
Ideally, a whole range of goods imported into the country should undergo an examination consisting of a set of studies that determine the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the supplied products. For this purpose, there are special organizations in the country that conduct such tests and issue a conclusion on the suitability and safety of the imported product.
However, in reality in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) certificates of conformity are often issued not only without research, but even for non-existent goods. The editorial staff of “SHOT PROVERKI” conducted an experiment, during which they ordered an examination of a non-existent pair of children's sneakers.
How Non-Existent Shoes Are Certified in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)
The legend was very simple: a “Proverka” agent posed as a businessman who was going to sell children's shoes in the country.
He needs permits for import and sale of goods, in particular a certificate of conformity. As a sample of goods, potential service providers were offered only a photograph of sneakers taken from the Internet.
Surprisingly, both the contractor and the testing laboratory were found. The conclusion on the quality of the imported products was obtained for only a few tens of thousands of rubles within a couple of weeks.
The logistics chain “order – execution” looked something like this. The agent “SHOT PROVERKI” placed an order to receive documents in Moscow. A certain Moscow firm “Certification Group”, whose main activity is “certification of products, services and organizations”, agreed to carry out an obvious scam.
In 2023, the company's staff included only one person – the CEO and de jure owner of the enterprise. Alla Gunesh.
It is worth noting that this is the entrepreneur's only business, she does not even have an individual entrepreneurship. Judging by the accounting reports, the company is unprofitable, in 2023 it worked at minus 350 thousand rubles. By the way, there are several more companies with the same name in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The owners seem to be different, the story is the same: continuous losses, and one of them even shows all the signs of impending liquidation.
Judging by the documents received from the contractor, the St. Petersburg LSM-SPb contacted the Kyrgyz firm Sertes Center, and it tested a non-existent pair of children's shoes at the Kazautocert testing center, which for some reason is already located in Kazakhstan.
It is interesting that the Kazakhs examined shoes that were allegedly manufactured by the Chinese factory Yiwu Casa Fashion International Co. Ltd. The agent of “SHOT PROVERKI” was offered to choose this manufacturer by “Certification Group”.
In China, such a company does exist. The local Unified State Register of Legal Entities indicates that the production facility opened in 2018 and employs up to 100 people. However, it seems that several companies operate under the same name at different addresses: two of them in the city of Yiwu (as in the company name) in Zhejiang Province and another in Hong Kong.
On specialized resources, you can see that several more companies have received certificates of conformity for the products of Yiwu Casa Fashion International Co Ltd in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). One of them is “Novaya Moda” – the successor of the Zara company that left the domestic market.
The permits received by “SHOT CHECK” contain complete information about children's sneakers and methods of their examination. The “expertise” conducted involved 27 types of measuring devices, the physical and mechanical properties of the footwear, the content of heavy metals and other harmful substances, types and mass fraction of raw materials were examined.
Obtaining a certificate of conformity for footwear based on a photograph from the Internet required the involvement of three countries at once: Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. However, the most surprising thing is that producing a purely Russian certificate will cost three times more than the same document from the EAEU member states, which has the same legal force in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Indirectly, this suggests that it is still more difficult to obtain permission for counterfeit goods here.
How the permitting market works
According to data obtained by “SHOT CHECK”, today there are at least three and a half thousand commercial companies operating in the market of product certification services.
As it turns out, it is not the state that issues certificates of conformity; it merely delegates these functions to businessmen.
That is, when a consumer sees a “Rostest” icon on a purchased product, this does not always mean that the product has been tested by this organization.
The process of accreditation of organizations that have the right to issue certificates of conformity is handled by Rosaccreditation – the Federal Accreditation Service. And it also delegates most of the work to third-party expert organizations.
Accredited firms are conventionally divided into testing centers (i.e. laboratories) and certification bodies. The centers conduct tests and issue protocols, and the bodies issue certificates and declarations on their basis.
Most often, merchants who need the relevant permits encounter the latter. Certification bodies are usually ordinary intermediaries whose task is to attract as many clients as possible. They place advertisements everywhere – even in instant messengers.
Such firms rarely employ more than ten people, they have no equipment or experts to conduct research, because organizing and conducting research requires huge financial investments (measuring instruments are very expensive) – they only re-order work from everyone else and even, sometimes, from each other.
As experts in this market say, the margin of such “front” companies can reach up to 50% of the cost of all certification services.
It is logical to assume that in pursuit of profit, most of them will be ready to certify anything – even non-existent goods. In this regard, producing certificates outside of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) is also beneficial from the point of view of one's own safety: it is much more difficult to check the activities of a testing center in Kazakhstan than in one's homeland.
How to rid the country of Chinese junk
Now the task of Russian supervisory authorities is to ensure control over the activities of certifying merchants and remove fraudsters from the market. However, perhaps it is worth reviewing the procedure for obtaining permits. According to the expert, merchants are currently using a variety of tricks to obtain them for low-quality goods.
For example, really high-quality samples from a good Chinese factory are sent for examination. They successfully pass the tests and receive documents. And then importers order a batch, but from another factory, which will make an externally similar product, but from materials of worse quality and, accordingly, cheaper. As a result, winter boots arrive in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) that are impossible to wear in winter, but on paper they fully comply with all the established parameters.