On the Chinese dealers' track of Louis Vuitton

On the Chinese dealers' track of Louis Vuitton

Installés dans un café branché des Galeries Lafayette, un mercredi après-midi de début de soldes d’été, quatre Chinois sirotent des smoothies tout en rigolant.So far, nothing extraordinary.Suddenly, a handful of young people, also Chinese, pass the door, arms loaded with luxury brands effigy.The atmosphere becomes more studious.The attacked men extract the goods from each of the packages: handbags, wallets ... in total thousands of euros in goods scroll in just a few minutes of minutes.

The four men sitting behind the bistro table photograph and note carefully price and characteristics of each product on a notebook.Then put them in a large suitcase that we imagine bought for the occasion.They send a few words to their deliverers before they disappear.A few minutes later, another group replaces them.The scene is repeated.In total, in 2 hours, we will see a dozen buyers and several tens of thousands of euros in very large brands.Streetpress tried to know what was the origin of this skillfully orchestrated buying fever.

Installed in a café des Galeries Lafayette, they list the products purchased./Credits: Maxime Reynié

Until 30 times cheaper than in China

Direction the department stores of Boulevard Haussmann to question the staff of luxury stands.In front of the Louis Vuitton store, hundreds of Chinese tourists wait behind red velvet safety cords.Some guards, Talkie by hand, regulate the flow of customers and bring them to the account of drops."We have a lot of Chinese customers all year round and even more at the time of their new year," said the store manager.And at the time of the sales?"We never do it!"We could have suspected.Compared to the massive purchases of LV claw bags, the man in costume does not seem worried:

Only here, what the head of the store ignores or omits at least to specify is that "in China the Louis Vuitton products are enormously taxed and the shops are almost empty", explains Françoise Nicolas, researcher at the InstituteFrench of international relations (IFRI), at the head of the Asia Center.According to the study, cited by Slate, "Chinese tourists and French luxury products", led by James Brodie and Sham Sharif, the price perhaps "20 to 30 times higher in China than in Hong Kong and that'in Europe ".

The price of luxury products may be "20 to 30 times higher in China than in Hong Kong and in Europe"./Credits: Maxime Reynié

Incroyable mais vrai, il serait donc moins cher de venir jusqu’à chez nous pour acheter des produits de luxe que de les acheter directement dans l’empire du milieu."The Chinese regime does not really like that these fellow citizens consume foreigners and therefore found a way to dissuade them," said one of our specialists in China.

"Parallel imports"

On comprend mieux pourquoi dans la très raffinée boutique Louis Vuitton, les quelques clients chinois repartis sur les deux étages auscultent chaque étiquette, calculatrice à la main, pour savoir quel sera le prix du produit une fois les 12% de TVA soustraits.According to another study, cited by people.CN, in 2015 the Chinese bought out of their borders for 105 billion euros in luxury products.If Chinese tourists return the suitcases full of luxury clothes and leather goods, it is according to the emeritus sinologist Guilhem Fabre, to make the trip profitable:

The specialist is the first to mention the "parallel import" system.As a reminder, parallel imports concern goods which have not suffered a counterfeit but which are imported from another country without the authorization of the intellectual property holder.A little business to pay for your vacation by reselling luxury products to friends?Maybe not only. Ces biens sont souvent écoulés sur le marché gris organisés via des canaux de distributions légaux, en opposition au marché noir. En claire, les produits sont achetés légalement en France, puis importés sous le manteau avant d’être revendus dans des boutiques qui ont pignon sur rue.

"They buy as many bags as possible to repay the trip and make some extras. » /Credits: Maxime Reynié

Sur la piste des dealeurs chinois de Louis Vuitton

Mechanics comparable to that of the "ants" sent from Japan by mafia networks to contribute to money laundering.A system highlighted by Nicolas GLIMOIS in his excellent documentary entitled: "Dirty money, the poison of finance"."I have no doubt that for a few years, with the explosion of Chinese tourism, backed by the globalization of criminal organizations, they have also been able to adopt the system.And undoubtedly improve it, "comments the latter, while insisting on his lack of knowledge about these sectors.

Made in France is popular

"When I go to China, my aunts ask me to bring them handbags bought in Paris," says Sophie.Of Chinese origin, the young Alsatian student goes to Beijing every other year to visit her family:

Even in China, false leather goods stamped "made in china" would no longer have the coast."There are so many false on the market, that some people no longer even have confidence in the products sold in official shops," said Sophie."The Chinese are invaded by counterfeits so there is all kinds of fairly amusing trafficking in counterfeiting because it is necessary to have real," agrees Jean-Vincent Brisset.

The queues are not upset in front of the Louis Vuitton store./Credits: Maxime Reynié

The queues are not upset in front of the Louis Vuitton store des Galeries Lafayette.Inside, the Chinese passing through, revel in this French luxury.The sellers brigade to which I kindly asked not to ask questions leaves nothing to chance.In a perfect mandarin, they welcome tourists with drinks and bend in four to satisfy their desires.

Then with the rest of their group, they are generally led to the new space of the galleries dedicated to Asian customers.A sanctuary of consumption accessible by the metro where everything, from signage to prices is written in mandarin. Baptisé « Galeries Lafayette Shopping & Welcome Center » ce drôle d’endroit aux allures de duty free d’aéroport met des dizaines de bancs à la disposition de sa clientèle.Clusters of tourists, exhausted from having surveyed the capital at the run, dozing or yawning by mumbling things to their neighbor."We opened this space in March to facilitate shopping and since we see thousands of Asian tourists pass by day," smiles a seller of Asian origin:

"We opened this space in March to facilitate shopping. » /Credits: Maxime Reynié

Between two requests for information, these privileged photographs the bags and exchange information on WeChat - Chinese Facebook - with relatives who have remained in the country.Then after careful thinking between the different models, they go to the checkout.They then head to one of the offices, located at the bottom of this new space.Keeping out of sight, customers come one by one to recover a slip which will then allow them to be reimbursed for VAT at a terminal provided for this purpose in airports.A device that facilitates this "parallel import" system.

" Money has no smell "

No one seems to do anything to fight against these little traffic?"It could pose a legal problem if it took enormous proportions which is not the case for the moment," explains Françoise Nicolas, researcher at IFRI."At the moment, it just makes funds come in to France so it's rather a good thing".Same story on the side of French customs:

The press service refers the ball to their Chinese counterparts:

If they are not too interested in what comes out of our territory, "in arrivals, we carry out a lot of checks including liquidity and it is true that the Chinese often have a lot but generally they declare them".

"Quite often they pay in cash," confirms Françoise Nicolas.The day we visit the LV store, the Chinese spread large bundles of tickets on the counter before leaving with their handbags. Mais pour Jean-Vincent Brisset, membre de l’Observatoire des stratégies chinoises et asiatiques (OSCA), il ne faut pas tomber dans la légende urbaine."The Chinese have no other choice for traveling as everything is controlled and regulated at home".

For this specialist, it is a "little business of little people" who will never compete with that of counterfeit.

"From Paris, we do not limit the number of bags or the amount of purchases. » /Credits: Maxime Reynié

Contacted by Streetpress, the Colbert Committee, an association which represents the main luxury brands in France and the press service of the LVMH group (Louis Vuitton, Kenzo, Marc Jacobs ...) did not follow up on our requests for interviews.