Customs and China have problems with smartphones. Customs does not give the go-ahead to Xiaomi: why parcels with gadgets from China are turned around at the Russian border
Russian customs began stopping Chinese company smartphones at the border that were not purchased from an official supplier.
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Photo by Reuters
At the end of April, Russian media reported that customs in Moscow, Orenburg and Yekaterinburg began “wrapping” parcels containing Xiaomi smartphones. Representatives of the Federal Customs Service inspect parcels and, if they contain “counterfeit products,” return them to the place of departure.
What's happening
On April 23, residents of the Orenburg region community on VKontakte. In it, they said that local customs are unwrapping parcels with Xiaomi smartphones, citing the fact that they were purchased on the “gray” market.
The creators of the community announced on the official website of the Volga Customs Administration, which states that Xiaomi devices returned to the senders on the basis of Article 313 of the Customs Code of the Customs Union and Article 18 of the Universal Postal Convention, which prohibit the import of counterfeit products.
Since March of this year, Orenburg customs, based on the results of customs control, has returned more than 500 international postal items(MPO) with electronic devices, marked with the Xiaomi trademark.
According to iGuides, in addition to Xiaomi, they may not be able to cross the border Sony devices, BlackBerry and Chuwi.
Information about the new requirements of customs officers was confirmed by tech blogger Eldar Murtazin on his Twitter. He advised buyers to “play it safe” and not buy the devices now. And for those who have already placed an order, file a lawsuit.
Xiaomi's position
Back in March 2017, Xiaomi said that it would vigorously combat “gray” supplies of devices. RDC Group has become the official partner of the Chinese company in Russia, and Smart Orange has become the official distributor.
In fact, only the latter has the right to trade Xiaomi smartphones and transport them across the border. The remaining companies must coordinate the supply of goods with it, and if the distributor discovers a counterfeit, it can return it to the sender through the court.
On April 25, the first official presentation of Xiaomi in Russia will take place in Moscow. The company enters Russian market and, according to the senior vice president, intends to “deal with counterfeit goods.”
Wang Xiang, Senior Vice President of Xiaomi
Presentation of Xiaomi in Moscow
Representatives of Xiaomi in the community on VKontakte say that the company has banned the transportation of “counterfeit and pirated items” not from an official distributor.
They rely on the provisions of Articles 1515 and 1252 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which regulate the protection of Xiaomi’s exclusive rights, in particular, to the brand and trademark and liability for their illegal use.
Thus, goods imported without the consent of the copyright holder, whose interests in the territory of the Russian Federation are represented by Smart Orange LLC, are counterfeit, since they violate the exclusive rights to the trademark of the copyright holder.
The company understands how complicated this complicates the purchasing process, so they announced their readiness to provide affected customers with exclusive access to official store and discounts on Xiaomi products.
How legal is this?
On April 26, the Federal Customs Service will fight counterfeit goods and fakes in parcels. True, at that time they only talked about child seats. Customs representatives stated that they intend to check not only goods arriving by transport, but also those arriving by post.
Customs officers have established effective contact with their Chinese colleagues, which allows them to jointly fight the flow of illegal goods.
Sergey Shklyaev, Head of the Trade Restrictions Department of the Federal Customs Service
The Federal Customs Service has the right to independently verify the authenticity of the goods. To do this, she must conduct an examination, but even if the smartphone is found to be “gray,” she will not be able to return it to the sender without a court decision.
This is stated in the joint plenum of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court.
A material medium can only be recognized as counterfeit by a court. If necessary, the court has the right to order an examination to clarify issues that require special knowledge.
Joint resolution of the plenums of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court
However, the Volga Customs in its message clarified that it stops the goods not because they are “non-original”, but on the basis of a violation of the exclusive right of the copyright holder.
In this case, the recognition of the product as counterfeit or genuine is carried out by the copyright holder of the Beijing Xiaomi Technology brand in Russia - the Smart Orange company. The distributor informed customs that goods with the Xiaomi marker delivered to post offices were considered counterfeit.
The copyright holder reported that the import of these original goods violates his exclusive rights, as a result of which he objects to the import of these goods into the territory of Russia.
Volga Customs Department
But, as in its resolution, the plenum of the Supreme Court, the expert and other competent persons have the right to establish only signs of counterfeiting. The legal assessment of these signs is given by the court.
Recently, there have been cases when Orienburg customs began to unwrap parcels containing Xiaomi phones purchased on AliExpress. When contacting the customs service for an official explanation of the reason why this product was stopped, they give the following answer: Since March 2017, the official Xiaomi online store in Russia, Smart Orange (a marketing division of RDC Group), has acquired the rights to sell Xiaomi products on Russian territory. Therefore, phones imported into Russia that have not been approved by the company are counterfeit. A reasonable question arises here - why Smart Orange LLC did not ban the sale of these products on the AliExpress site, but influences customs, which stops parcels that are goods for personal use, and certainly non-counterfeit?
In accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 328 of the Customs Code of the Customs Union: “2. Measures to protect rights to objects intellectual property are not applied by customs authorities in relation to goods moved across the customs border: 1) individuals for personal use, including those sent to their address in international mail;"
What to do if a parcel with a Xiaomi phone was not allowed through customs?
If you are expecting a Xiaomi phone and see that the tracking of your postal item has a status with a refusal from customs clearance, then you should write an official appeal to the relevant customs department with a request to inform about the reasons for the refusal. Attach official response to open dispute on AliExpress. 
On this moment There is information that Xiaomi phones are passing through customs in Vnukovo. Basically, they unwrap parcels arriving at customs in Orenburg. Therefore, if you want to buy a Xiaomi phone, then it is better to write to the seller first and find out about the delivery method, so that the parcel does not end up in Orenburg.
All Xiaomi smartphones are imported into Russia, so many buyers of mobile devices from this manufacturer were never able to receive their parcels. Chinese online stores and sellers understood this and returned money to customers for undelivered goods. Even though thousands of Russians have already filed complaints with several Russian authorities and the CEO of Xiaomi in China, the likelihood of resolving this situation with customs peacefully is extremely low.
The editors of the site carefully analyzed the situation and found two really working solutions that will help buyers from Russia continue to get their hands on Xiaomi smartphones at very low prices. At the same time, the likelihood of any problems arising with the customs service of the Russian Federation is negligible. If everything is done correctly, the package is guaranteed to end up in the hands of the buyer, bypassing the traps set by the Smart Orange company, which asked not to allow allegedly counterfeit Xiaomi smartphones into Russia, since it owns the rights to this trademark.
Agree with the seller or online store
Russian customs operates very simply. If the postal package contains words like “Xiaomi smartphone,” then such mail will not reach Russia. All Chinese online stores and individual sellers usually mention the name of the company, so Russian customs are actually provided with all the data to complete their task
Before purchasing a Xiaomi smartphone in China, you should contact representatives of the online store or seller in advance, asking them not to indicate the brand name of the smartphone, limiting themselves to only the words “smartphone” or “ mobile device on Android." In this case, the customs service will never be able to know for sure which smartphone manufacturer is inside. Of course, the package can be opened, but this almost never happens.
Compliance with this simple rule will allow you to continue to order Xiaomi smartphones from China without overpaying double the price to the Russian representative of the company. At the same time, everything will be on completely legal grounds, since the essence of the parcel does not change. Customs officers will still understand that there is a mobile device inside, but what kind of device they will only have to guess.
Order Xiaomi smartphones from the Mall
As part of its integration into the Russian market, the largest Chinese online store AliExpress opened a so-called “Mall” a few months ago, in which Russian residents can order goods not from China, but directly from their country. Thus, postal items bypass inspection by customs services, which means buying this way in a simple way You can use Xiaomi smartphones.
Of course, goods from the Mall cost approximately 10-15% more than those when delivered from China, but the confidence of receiving the parcel and the absence of headaches with customs are definitely worth it. We also note that all postal items moving only in Russia reach recipients within two weeks, and this is another reason to buy a Xiaomi smartphone through AliExpress Mall.
Until August 25 inclusive, everyone has the opportunity to use Xiaomi Mi Band 4, spending only 1 minute of their personal time on it.
Join us on
In recent days, the topic of blocking the supply channel Xiaomi devices from China to Russia has become one of the most popular on the Internet, which is understandable - it has become a place of regular shopping for many domestic users, but now shopping in the Middle Kingdom has become more risky.
In contact with
So, in short, the situation is as follows: devices under the Xiaomi brand (like most other Asian vendors) until recently successfully reached Russia through two channels - the official one, through distributors, and the “grey” one, in mail from various online fairs such as and like her. Naturally, the presence of a second alternative channel pleased buyers with its lower (30-100%) prices, but upset the managers of Smart Orange LLC, which officially represents the interests of Xiaomi in the domestic market.
Actually, they did not put up with the state of affairs at Smart Orange and very much asked (how exactly they asked - history is silent) to the Federal Customs Service of Russia to limit the import of the parent company’s products from China through international shipments. To their request, Smart Orange representatives attached a list of dealers, including the official distributor of RDC Group, who will receive Chinese smartphones, tablets and other gadgets are allowed - these citizens, or rather those registered by them legal entities, regularly pay all the necessary deductions, which means they function quite reasonably.
As a result, thousands of users who ordered Xiaomi products (as well as customers of some other brands, but to a much lesser extent) from China received notification that their packages were sent back to the sellers. At the same time, most of the shipments were “wrapped” for one of two reasons: the device contains strong cryptographic protection (the import of such devices into the Russian Federation is limited) or the device was recognized as counterfeit (the fact of counterfeiting is allegedly determined by Smart Orange LLC).
Naturally, this is not the first attempt to limit online shopping by Russians - such a large market cannot remain without state control and its direct (or is it indirect?) benefit. According to the curator of the public organization RosKomSvoboda Artem Kozlyuk, the customs service can be the main instrument of influence on buyers of foreign online stores.
Users affected by such actions by the FCS are trying to get their money back by contacting Chinese sellers; only a few of them are ready to sue customs. Lawyers note that winning such a lawsuit would be very problematic for a private individual, and the process itself could take years. At the same time, at the moment, parcels from Xiaomi are not allowed through only in Yekaterinburg and Orenburg, but columnist Eldar Murtazin, citing sources in the Federal Customs Service, notes that in the near future employees in other cities will receive similar instructions. Moreover, if the methods tested by Xiaomi prove effective, other companies may apply them in the near future.
However, some users have found a way to relatively safely receive their parcels from the Middle Kingdom. To do this, you need to agree with the seller so that instead of Xiaomi, another brand of smartphone or tablet that is included in the list of valid FSB notifications is indicated in the shipment. Such a device will not be subject to the law on strong cryptographic protection and may undergo customs inspection.
Federal Customs Service Russian Federation began to more often block the import of electronic gadgets ordered by private individuals in foreign online stores. Parcels with goods that have not cleared customs are sent back to the sender.
There have been a lot of complaints online from people who made smartphone purchases on AliExpress, and their parcels were blocked at customs and subsequently sent to the return address. In some cases, active users tried to understand the reasons why customs did not release their orders, which they shared in their reviews. Thus, it became clear that the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, under the pretext of combating counterfeit products imported into the territory of the Russian Federation and the countries of the Customs Union, actually lobbies the interests of certain business structures that are interested in increasing their sales. At the same time, this government agency has developed a cunning and, from a legal point of view, very dubious scheme to block the import of parcels with certain equipment that should be delivered to private individuals for personal use.
In this case, the “distribution” included smartphones and other electronic gadgets of the XIAOMI brand. However, this is not the first group of goods that has fallen out of favor with our valiant customs. Previously, the network discussed the problem of receiving child car seats ordered from foreign online stores, which were not tested for “counterfeiting” when they were ordered independently by ordinary buyers from Russia. At the same time, the exact same car seats of the same Chinese brands were quite successfully sold in Russian online stores.
Now the same thing is happening with Xiaomi smartphones.
According to a statement from one of the victims of the refusal to import a parcel with a Xiaomi mobile gadget, when trying to understand the causes of the problem, he turned to the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation for clarification. In the response letter it was indicated to him that in the parcel addressed to the applicant from abroad, a product was found that was included in the list of “intellectual property objects” and had signs of “counterfeit or pirated items.” As a result, documents and information about this product were checked, which showed that the Xiaomi TM smartphone is listed in the customs register of intellectual property.
As it became known earlier from the media, in March of this year, the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation sent out notifications about the introduction of trademark"XIAOMI" to the appropriate register based on the request of the copyright holder. Moreover, in the same notification, the applicant is called Smart Orange LLC, with a note that this company has the status of an authorized importer of XIAOMI products in Russia (and this is not even a representative of the trademark owner in the country). But, apparently, the customs believes that the copyright holder (or his legal representative) and the importer are equivalent concepts, since in the response letter to the person affected by the actions of the customs, Smart Orange LLC is indicated as an authorized representative of the copyright holder.
The customs authorities do not have the authority to independently recognize the fact of “counterfeiting” of goods. Therefore, in order not to accidentally miss such products on the territory of Russia, FCS employees notified the above-mentioned “representative of the XIAOMI trademark in the Russian Federation” about the import portable phone Xiaomi. He, in turn, sent a “response” to the relevant department of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation stating that the goods indeed have signs of counterfeiting, and they have objections regarding its import into the territory of the Russian Federation.
This recognition of the goods as “counterfeit” gave the right to employees of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, on the basis of the “Customs Code of the Customs Union,” to prohibit the transportation of parcels with the corresponding goods to Russia. As a result, the goods were transferred to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Russian Post" for return shipment to the sender's address.
The above example shows an outrageously primitive scheme for “wrapping” parcels containing smartphones ordered by private individuals in foreign stores. Thus, when an inspector detects the mark “cell phone” or “phone” on an international postal item (IPO) in the customs declaration, he opens the parcel.
If a Xiaomi TM gadget is detected in it, the shipment is postponed and the process of recognizing this product as counterfeit begins: the customs inspector takes a photograph of this smartphone and sends the photo to Smart Orange LLC, which, based on this photograph, recognizes it as counterfeit. And this, in turn, gives customs a reason not to miss the parcel and send it back to the sender.
According to the law, customs experts and other competent persons are only allowed to identify signs of counterfeiting that may indicate a violation of intellectual rights. And recognition of a product as counterfeit can only be made by the court, which is clearly stated in paragraph 25 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 5, the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 29 of March 26, 2009 “On some issues that arose in connection with the introduction of part four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation". And no matter how much anyone else would like it, there are no exceptions for authorized importers and even legal representatives, including Smart Orange LLC.
Moreover, based on another resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated June 19, 2006 No. 15 (POINT 5), “When ordering an examination in connection with the need to study objects of copyright and (or) related rights, the courts must comply with the requirements regarding the inadmissibility of engaging as experts or specialists persons associated with labor or contractual relations with copyright holders. If it is necessary to obtain information about special forms of protection of objects of copyright and related rights (special labels on disks, works of art etc.), which are known only to the copyright holder, his employees and other persons associated with him can be summoned to court only as witnesses.”
All of the above clearly indicates the illegality of the actions of employees of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation regarding the recognition of documents received from Smart Orange LLC with the grounds given in them for recognizing the XIAOMI TM goods imported to the MPO as counterfeit.
Now a few words about business interests...
Xiaomi officially entered the Russian market only in the fall of 2016. In October 2016, it was announced that Smart Orange LLC had been appointed as the official representative and distributor of Xiaomi in Russia. This LLC is the representative of the RDC Group in the Russian Federation and the countries of the former USSR. In addition, on products of the Xiaomi TM, which are sold in retail outlets“Smart Orange” labels indicate that the importer is RDK. The ultimate owners of the latter are several citizens of the Russian Federation, including Arkady Yashkov. And he has been included in the list of members of the expert council under the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation for several years now. So much for your logical financial interest.
So, it is quite understandable why the FCS structures are very interested in lobbying the interests of Smart Orange and preventing the import of Xiaomi smartphones and some other products.
Users are increasingly unsubscribing online with complaints about similar illegal actions with MPOs, in which smartphones are sent to private individuals, by employees of Koltsovskaya Customs (Ekaterinburg) and the Orenburg division of the Federal Customs Service. So far, such chaos has not yet been observed with parcels that arrive through Moscow customs at Vnukovo, but there are fears that such a scheme of preventing Xiaomi products ordered directly from abroad for personal needs by private individuals could quickly spread to all possible “ entry points" for parcels from abroad. In addition, it is possible that this same example may be followed by “representatives” of other trademarks whose products are popular among ordinary Russians who do not want to overpay when purchasing things in Russian stores(both online and offline), and those who prefer to order them on AliExpress and other foreign sites.
What to do if you are caught in a distribution
Eldar Murtazin, who is the presenter mobile analyst Research Group recommends that those affected by the actions of the customs service file a lawsuit, since the FCS clearly violates the “rules of postal items for private individuals.”
It is clear that such legal hassle can require a lot of time, effort and even money. Few people want to get involved in litigation with the state.
On the other hand, if you have not received a smartphone ordered, for example, from AliExpress, you have the right to open a dispute and return the funds paid for it under the buyer protection program.
If there are a lot of such cases, then most likely the sellers and the manufacturer will clearly be unhappy with the losses associated with direct online sales from China, which may force Xiaomi to intervene in the situation. Many users in their comments suggest that one of the options for solving the problem could be to revoke the right of Smart Orange LLC to represent the interests of Xiaomi in the Russian Federation, or at least demand to stop their “expert” activities in recognizing smartphones coming to the MPO as “counterfeit” " This development is quite likely due to the high and constantly growing volumes of orders of Xiaomi smartphones from Russian buyers directly from China.
For those who do not want to worry about the fate of what they purchased on AliExpress Xiaomi phone, we can recommend waiting for some time. Surely everything will return to its previous place soon.
Those who are willing to take risks, in principle, do not risk anything, since you can always demand a refund for goods not received, at least on AliExpress this scheme works quite well. The only problem is that the buyer wastes time waiting for the parcel. If it is not received, the money is returned quickly, but then you will have to wait again for another smartphone.
From May 5, 2017, GearBest stopped selling smartphones and other Xiaomi gadgets costing more than $50 to buyers from Russia. All previously ordered items from this brand have either been shipped or will be shipped as normal. In any case, all buyers are protected from non-receipt of goods under the normal mechanism. If problems arise with the delivery of ordered products, users are advised to contact GearBest support via a ticket, and promise to protect the interests of the client.
P.S. Victims and simply outraged by the current state of affairs with electronic gadgets ordered from China, citizens created a Change.org resource in which they demand permission to import Xiaomi smartphones transferred by individuals to MPO for personal use. This petition will be sent to the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation and to the address of the manufacturer Beijing Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd.
Thus, great public interest in this problem can have a positive effect on its speedy resolution. At least we really hope so.
