Accra, March 17, Ghanadot/GNA – An Accra Circuit Court on
Tuesday began hearing the case involving two Chinese immigrants
allegedly in possession with quantities of fake green close-up
tooth paste products marked with a counterfeit trade mark
belonging to Unilever Ghana branch.
The two, Tang Wei, a businessman and Chen Chuping, a saleslady,
who pleaded not guilty, have been granted bail in the sum of GH¢20,000
with one surety each.
In his evidence, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Paul
Kofi Friempong, the Marketing Director of Unilever Ghana, Mr.
Prince Asante Obeng told the court, presided over by Mrs.
Justice Elizabeth Ankomah told the court that for some time now
Unilever Ghana had been battling with counterfeit products on
the market which put the health of its consumers at risk.
He pointed out that analyses conducted by Ghana Standards Board
(GSB) said consumers who used such fake product experienced gum
bleeding.
Unilever, a transnational company with subsidiaries in other
parts of the world, had its own registered trade mark which
distinguished their products from counterfeits ones.
Comparing the fake green Close-up tooth paste with the original
or the genuine one, he stated that the discrepancies in the
product packing and the high level of fluoride of the fake
product created mouth sores for consumers.
Throwing more light on the difference of both the fake product
and the original one, Mr Asante said Unilever had divided the
West African sub-region into two for marketing strategic
purposes, namely the Francophone and Anglophone markets.
He said according to their business policy, Francophone markets
sold the green close-up toothpaste with instruction written in
French, manufactured by Unilever in Cote d’Ivoire, whilst the
red close-up toothpaste was produced for its Anglophone market
with instructions written in English language.
Mr Asante said apart from a lot of French grammatical mistakes
mixed with English language on the fake one, the colour of the
pack is dark green. It has thick or deep green paste with a
menthol-like flavour which is completely different from the
original one which has a light green box, with a translucent
like paste with a refreshing soothing mint-like paste.
Mr. Asante said his sales manager in-charge of the Okaishie and
Makola informed him that some hawkers were selling some green
Close-up at below the normal price and therefore engaged the
services of Industry and Market Support System, a research firm,
to conduct investigations into the matter of the source of the
green Close-up tooth paste.
He said after some days the Director of Industry and support
system, Mr. Cherubim Awaeye came up with six tubes of the green
Close-up and said he had found the source and that the stock had
come from China. He subsequently wrote to the subsidiary branch
in China whether such a product has come from them to Ghana and
the reply was negative.
Counsel for the accused persons Mr. Peter Zwennes objected to
the tendering in of a letter purported to have come from the
sister company.
He said, “the letter was not addressed to anybody and it could
be that the letter was written by anybody at all. Again the
letter is not dated and more significantly the letter was not
signed” and he asked the court not to admit the letter into
evidence.
This, the court obliged, and said a cursory look at the letter
showed that the letter did not have a date and signature.
The case has been adjourned to March 19, 2009.
In late November 2006, Unilever Ghana began to see green tooth
pastes on the market and became alert.
The company therefore conducted Market Support System, a firm to
conduct research the source of the counterfeit products.
On November 12, 2006, Chuping sold to a witness in the case six
pieces of green close-up tooth paste at GH¢2.50.
On December 12, 2006 Chuping collected GH¢200 from a witness as
a deposit to sell to him cartons of Close-up tooth paste and
issued to him VAT service invoice receipt number 17735279.
Thereafter, they were subsequently arrested. During a search at
Wei’s warehouse at Mallam, four cartons of the green Close-up
tooth paste were retrieved.
Samples of the Close-up tooth paste were sent to the Ghana
Standards Board for analytical examination which proved that the
green Close-up tooth paste retrieved from the two accused
persons were fake products.
GNA
