Did TikTok tell you to buy luxury goods straight from China? Experts say proceed with caution

Think you’ve found a great deal on TikTok to buy Lululemon or Louis Vuitton directly from the factory? Experts say you might want to think again about how real the claims in that video are.

In recent days, social media users claiming to have an inside scoop on how and where luxury brands are really made have begun popping up online, especially on TikTok. 

In the videos, users claim to be Chinese manufacturers, or say they have friends in high positions at factories that make luxury goods. They go on to say that brands like Louis Vuitton, Lululemon, Hermes and more make their products in China, and claim the items are made for much less than they’re sold for. 

Some of the videos also offer links or website names that they say users can go to in order to purchase versions of their favourite products of the same quality but for a fraction of the price. 

Other accounts, like @lunasourcingchina which shared a very popular video claiming that Lululemon products could be bought directly from Chinese factories for $5 or $6, have since disappeared from TikTok, though accounts with nearly identical usernames and content styles do remain up.

Inga Trauthig, a research professor studying cybersecurity at Florida State University, says many of the videos repeat specific messages — like the claim that China has the best supply chains —and this raises red flags.

Some of the accounts — like this one, this one and this one that profile the same supposed manufacturer — have few followers and posted their first videos just days ago. Many of the same videos have also been reposted across these accounts. Some of their followers also have no profile pictures, random usernames and strange posts on their pages, which could point to those accounts being bots.

Trauthig says accounts being new and followed by possible bot accounts hints that they could be part of a propaganda campaign. Flaws in the video or audio quality also indicate that these videos might be propaganda, Trauthig says, as these kinds of imperfections can arise when creators of propaganda are editing and repurposing content for multiple videos, trying to spread their message as far and wide as possible.

It would be impossible to tell whether or not these videos are actually being made by real Chinese manufacturers or if they might be part of a Chinese state-run campaign without further research, Trauthig says — especially given the trade war would incentivize both the government and business owners to make videos like this that promote manufacturing within the country.

TikTok did not respond to the CBC’s request for comment by deadline regarding the nature of the posts on their platform. TikTok does have rules against selling counterfeits and says that they prohibit false or misleading content.

Either way, Trauthig says the intent is to speak directly to U.S. consumers during the trade war, projecting confidence in the quality of Chinese products as U.S. President Donald Trump claims his country should make its own stuff.

Already, the U.S. government has imposed 145 per cent blanket tariffs on China, which experts have said would raise the price of consumer goods tremendously for American consumers.

“What the Chinese want to portray … in these videos, is like, ‘It’s not on us, we can get you whatever you want, we can get it for you cheaper,'” Trauthig said. “And that obviously implicitly puts the blame on the American government.”

Is this actually how our stuff gets made? 

Whether or not the videos are actually made by manufacturers in China, Samuel Roscoe, a lecturer in supply chain and operations management at the University of British Columbia’s business school, says some of the posts do describe roughly how our supply chains work.

Factories in China or elsewhere are often given contracts by North American brands to produce a certain item, say a pair of running shoes. The brand gives the manufacturer the blueprint for the shoe and the factory in China makes that product, often complete in its packaging according to Roscoe, before shipping it off to a distribution centre in the Western world. Roscoe says the price you see on store shelves might well be a markup of 50 to 100 per cent from what the factory in China charges the brand to make the product.

Lululemon does work with suppliers in a variety of countries including China, and about 3 per cent of the company’s finished goods are made in that country, the company told CBC in an emailed statement. 

However, “lululemon does not work with the manufacturers identified in the online videos and we urge consumers to be aware of potentially counterfeit products and misinformation,” a spokesperson said. 

Hermes and Louis Vuitton did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication. On Hermes’ website the brand says its production takes place “mainly” in France, with supplementary production sites in Switzerland, Italy, the U.K., the U.S., Portugal and Australia. Louis Vuitton, on the other hand, lists France, Italy, Spain, the U.S. and Switzerland as the countries where its products are manufactured.

If these TikTokers are in fact manufacturers as they claim to be, Roscoe says it’s possible that some of them could have produced extra running shoes or leggings during a contract and now be turning around to sell those products to consumers directly.

Other posts — like this one — also don’t claim to have contracts with brands, but state that their artisans can make exact replicas that are just as good and much cheaper.

Selling the excess products made on a contract or selling counterfeits would both be violations of intellectual property rights, according to Roscoe. He says in the past, China has been quick to crack down on these kinds of violations in order to make the country an attractive manufacturing hub for Western brands, but says that appetite to follow the rules could be changing in the face of a trade war with the U.S.

Manufacturers that work with big brands like Lululemon also take a big risk in making these kinds of posts, as the brands would quickly drop the factories selling end of the line products, according to Roscoe.

“But … I think it’s a bit of a calculated risk as a way to kind of say, ‘Hey, U.S., you need to drop your tariffs and we’ll go back to protecting your IP,'” Roscoe said.

Ordering directly isn’t so simple

While you likely can place an order through the links being shared on TikTok, Behrouz Bakhtiari, assistant professor at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, says the videos probably aren’t telling the full story.

Take a video advertising jeans for $1.30. That price would only apply to wholesale orders for hundreds or thousands of pairs, not just one or two, Bakhtiari points out.

It’s also not a way to get around U.S. tariffs like some have claimed, Bakhtiari says. The 145 per cent tariff rate applies to all items, except the few goods like electronics Trump later carved out. 

“Even if they bought one pair of jeans, they will still need to pay that [tariff],” Bakhtiari said.

The only exception is for goods under a certain value — but that rule is also going away in a matter of days. The de minimis exemption allowed packages entering the U.S. with contents valued at less than $800 US to be exempt from taxes, but Trump signed an executive order earlier in April to end that exemption effective May 2. 

For Canadian consumers on the other hand, our country has tariffs on some Chinese goods, but apparel isn’t one of them.  

Still, Trauthig cautions against ordering from any of these sites, as consumers should be wary of the kind of personal data and credit card information they’d be passing over in doing so.

“One thing we also know from our research in the online space is the political and the economic often overlap,” she said. “So there might be people piggybacking on [the trade war], knowing this is a political trending topic, but they actually are just there to defraud some American consumers.”