Online Celebrity Sentenced To Prison For Selling Fake Disney Plushes

An online celebrity has been sentenced to prison and issued fines after they were caught selling fake Disney stuffed animals.

Those plushes were of LinaBell, a Disney Friend of Duffy, who is extremely popular in the overseas Disney Parks.

An online celebrity, Zhu, who has 200,000 followers on Douyn, the Chinese version of TikTok, and his wife sold fake Disney dolls and other Disney accessories at a lower price during livestream sales in 2021 and 2022, according to SHINE, the online version of local newspaper Shanghai Daily. The revenue topped out at over 3 million yuan ($436,300).

Six people in total were prosecuted in China for selling fake plushes with Mickey Mouse symbols, and of the Duffy & Friends character LinaBell. Per the newspaper, "After communicating with the company and checking the certification of its trademark registration, the authority noticed that the Mickey Mouse shapes on the counterfeits without logos infringed its IP as well."

Zhu and his wife were sentenced to 22 months in prison along with fines of 800,000 yuan (which equals approximately $116,422 U.S.). The others who were involved were sentenced to one-year probation along with smaller fines.

Zhu pleaded guilty, admitting he avoided using "Disney" words in his live streams in an attempt to bypass intellectual property laws.

This was not the first time Shanghai Police caught social media personalities selling fake Disney dolls. Last August, seventeen suspects were arrested in connection to selling fake trademark dolls, including Disney's popular character LinaBell, through live shopping sessions.

Per their report, police in Jing'an District started their investigation in early 2022 after a man, Liu, reported the case.

"Liu paid 42 yuan (US$6.2) to buy a LinaBell doll during a live shopping session on Douyin, a popular short video website, while its market price is 219 yuan. However, the doll delivered to him later turned out to be a botched job," SHINE reported. "Police found that Liu was not alone in complaining about the inferior quality of the cheap dolls sold by the live shopping business, which was one of the most followed ones on the video platform."

The fake Disney plushes were purchased from a factory at a price of 5 to 20 yuan each and resold online, bringing in more than 5 million yuan in illegal sales.

LinaBell is a smart pink fox in the Duffy and Friends toyline introduced in 2021 at Shanghai Disneyland. She finds joy and excitement in solving problems and mysteries.

Disney Parks shared LinaBell's storyline when first introducing her, reporting, "Duffy met LinaBell when he was lost in the forest following a butterfly. LinaBell suddenly but masterfully took out her magnifying glass and started examining “clues” on Duffy’s body to figure out where he had come from. Thanks to her detective-like talent, Duffy was able to be reunited with Mickey Mouse. Duffy and the rest of the friends are often in awe of her ingenious ways of solving problems."

LinaBell made her debut at other Disney Parks in the Fall of 2022.