the controversial application to buy replicas of fashion brands has gone viral in Europe

Cell phones have completely changed the way we shop for fashion and other products; It is no longer necessary to go directly to the store, we can get high-quality and very cheap items through a variety of store applications. Apps like Shein have become essential on the cell phones of many Spaniards, but this has also brought up alternatives that promise the same thing, but cheaper.

One of these alternatives has managed, overnight, to become the favorite of many Spaniards, for a simple reason: it promises access to the best brands at the best prices. Videos going viral on TikTok and other social networks seem to prove it: by searching for “haul hacoo,” it’s possible to find authentic bargains from top brands like Loewe, Adidas, The North Face or Nike.

There is only one detail we need to take into account: all these clothes are fake. But far from being a problem, for many people it is a positive aspect of Hacoo, which seems to offer these counterfeit products without any obstacles. Although counterfeits do not reach the production and quality levels of real products, for many consumers the important thing is wearing the brand; and if they can save hundreds of dollars by buying a fake, they do it. A simple walk through the tourist areas of Europe demonstrates this.

In a way, Hacoo seems to be the successor to the “flea markets” in which imitations and counterfeits proliferated. Hacoo is not the seller of the products, but is a “marketplace”, a platform on which sellers can publish their products; This opens the door to abuse of intellectual property, since it depends on the goodwill of the seller. However, this is something the company has denied, including a section on its website in which it boasts that it is “committed to the protection of intellectual property” and “obeys the law and other regulations”. Among the measures he claims to have taken are elimination of the product and investigation of its originending with the suspension of the seller.

And it’s true that, if you enter the Hacoo application, we will not find any counterfeits. The app is designed like a social network like Instagram or TikTok, and the idea is that we can scroll continuously looking for the tracksuit we need or a bracelet that suits us; Although we find products similar to the originals, even smart watches that copy the Apple Watch Ultra, they do not use foreign brands and are sold as original products. Likewise, if we search for clothing brands, like “Nike”, the application’s search engine will tell us that no products are found.

The “trick” to finding designer clothing at Hacoo is not to use the search engine integrated into the application, but rather the classic method for finding good deals: word of mouth. More specifically, they formed communities on Telegram and social networks like the aforementioned TikTok videos, in which users share “crops” of fake products they have purchased and direct links to the products. Other users just need to click on this link and the Hacoo app will automatically open with the fake product.

It is unclear whether Hacoo is aware of this method of circumventing its rules and allowing it to gain popularity; This is a tactic that has previously been used by other shopping apps that allowed counterfeit product trafficking to gain customers, but have now been “cleaned up” and become trusted stores. Many of these apps come from China, but Hacoo is a little less transparent about their origin and only reveals on its website that it is headquartered in Ireland (where many foreign tech companies are based to benefit from favorable taxes).