Discerning drinkers called to complain that the Veuve Clicquot didn’t quite taste right.
An investigation found that the French champagne was actually a $12 Argentine Prosecco disguised with the famous yellow label, said Rodolpho Ramazzini, director of communications and lawyer at the Brazilian association for combating false goods.
It was being sold at legitimate stores in Sao Paulo at $100 a pop before the importer was arrested.
The bubbly incident is one of 1,200 operations executed last year by the police and the association to crack down on counterfeit items increasingly flooding the country.
Consumers are feeling the pinch from inflation that’s forecast to rise to 7.5 per cent this year, above the 6.5 per cent ceiling of the government’s target range, and from taxes of up to 78 per cent on items from Viagra to Lacoste cologne. That makes cheaper fake goods, which also include Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, look like a better deal.
"We are losing the fight against contraband,” Ramazzini said at a press conference in Sao Paulo. "Our frontiers are unguarded, our ports are open to illegal products - this hurts the country, it hurts established industries and the generation of formal employment."
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM
