Some institutions are offering a 10-day training course to identify genuine luxury products for a fee of up to 32,800 yuan ($ 5,350). Given that no valid certificates are issued in China for identifying luxury goods, the authorities should take restrictive measures against the unapproved institutions offering such courses, says an article in Southern Metropolis Daily. Excerpts:

The exorbitant fees and unrecognized certificates have not deterred candidates from applying for the training courses for identifying luxury products. Apart from the high course fees, students also have to spend large amounts of money to buy different luxury brand products - differentiating genuine goods from fakes - as part of their practical training sessions.

However, there is no authorized institution to tell genuine luxury brand products from fakes in China, and no such qualification or certificate is recognized by the luxury products industry. In other words, consumers do not seek the help of authorities to assess the genuineness of the products they have bought.

So what is driving people to spend huge amounts of money to get certificates as experts in identifying luxury products? Perhaps they are driven by the profits that can be made from such a business. With the rapid increase in the consumption of luxury goods in China, fakes have flooded the market, creating the need for people who can tell the genuine products from counterfeits.

But the paradox is that even the trained "identifiers" are not really qualified for this job simply because they are not approved by the luxury industry. Thus to protect consumers from being deceived, there is need to streamline and strictly monitor the training course for identifying luxury products.