Overseasidol.com — On November 10, actress Carina Lau publicly accused e-commerce giant Taobao of misleading consumers after discovering that a store on the platform had used her husband Tony Leung’s photo for product promotion without permission.
She posted on social media, saying, “Such serious infringement and deception of consumers Taobao Tmall, is this your marketing strategy?,”.
The attached images in her post showed that a store named “ENCARE Overseas Flagship Store”, labeled with the “Tmall Global” logo, was selling a product called New Zealand ENCARE Bovine Immunoglobulin.
The promotional image for the item featured a half-body photo of Tony Leung.
Later that afternoon, the product page had been removed from the store.
Reporters contacted Taobao’s customer service, and a representative stated that users can report suspected violations directly on the platform, and the case will be investigated and handled accordingly.
Lawyer Lu Jin from Hubei Chisheng Law Firm explained that if the store used Tony Leung’s photo without authorization for commercial gain, it likely constitutes a violation of his portrait rights.
He also added that using a celebrity’s image without consent may mislead consumers into believing the person is endorsing the product, which could be considered false advertising under Chinese law.
