LONDON – On an anonymous industrial estate on the outskirts of London, a queue of police vans and empty lorries blocks the usual lunchtime traffic. They’re here to seize fake Labubu dolls—thousands of them.
After weeks of investigation, intelligence that originated at a corner shop in South Wales has led Trading Standards officers to a maze of hidden rooms above a retail outlet. Inside, officers estimate that millions of pounds’ worth of counterfeit products are stacked floor to ceiling. But what concerns them most are the fluffy, mischievous-looking dolls at the centre of a global TikTok craze.
According to Forbes, the popularity of Labubu dolls helped parent company Pop Mart more than double its total revenue to £1.33 billion ($1.81 billion) last year. The dolls are in high demand among both children and adults, with some fans saying they queued for hours or travelled across the country to get an authentic one.
However, messages seen by BBC News suggest that scalpers may be purchasing hundreds of genuine dolls at a time to resell them at a profit. Authorities have reported a “flood” of counterfeits entering the market. UK Border Force has seized hundreds of thousands of fake dolls at ports in recent months, while officers at the London industrial estate believe the dolls grinning up at them from crates may conceal a darker danger.
“The head comes off. The feet will pull off,” said Rhys Harries from Trading Standards, as one doll literally falls apart in his hands. Harries first encountered similar dolls during a raid on a corner shop nearly 200 miles away in Swansea, before tracing the supply back to the current site. “I’ve found them in bags with their eyes coming off, their hands falling off,” he said.
Harries’ team uses a plastic tube shaped like a child’s throat to determine whether an object poses a choking hazard. “These parts would all get stuck—and potentially cause choking,” he explained. (BBC)
