Beijing Silk Street, a shopping mall popular among foreign tourists for selling cheap clothes, has lost a lawsuit for selling counterfeit foreign brands including Prada and Gucci, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

"It is the first lawsuit the new Silk Street has lost for selling pirated goods since it moved into a new department store," the Beijing Daily Messenger was quoted as saying.

Five foreign makers of luxury goods, including Chanel, Prada, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, sued Xiushui Haosen Clothing Market Co. last month for facilitating the sale of pirated copies of clothes, shoes and other goods.

"As the market manager, Haosen took no action to stop stall holders in the mall from selling pirated copies, so it is responsible for the infringement," the newspaper quoted the lawyer for the five brands as saying.

After the hearing, the court ordered Xiushui Haosen Clothing Market Co.and the five stall holders to stop selling the five companies' products, and fined them a total of 100,000 yuan (US$12,500).

The suit was filed last month by the five plaintiffs, who asked for 2.5 million yuan (US$300,000) in compensation.

The plaintiffs brought six boxes containing hundreds of counterfeit items to a Beijing court last month to prove the violations.

The mall's management denied the claims, saying it had done its best to forbid sales of pirated goods.

Since it began as an open-air market in 1985, the Silk Street has been popular with overseas tourists as one of the "must-visit" spots in Beijing. The market was moved into a new building this March.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2005)