A Canada Goose store in Beijing Photo: VCG

Xiji (Shanghai) Trading Co, Canada Goose-related company in China, was fined 450,000 yuan ($69,750) by the market regulator in Shanghai, for falsely advertising goods or services, deceiving and misleading consumers after an investigation found t that the proportion of goose down was significantly less than duck down, inconsistent with their publicity.

The company came under spotlight after the market regulatory announced their investigation in which they found, in the 190 types of down clothing that the company sold, the proportion of goose down was around 16.8 percent compared with 83.2 percent of duck down. The company claimed in its advertisement that the down used in their products are "excellent and the warmest," local media reported.

Other than the proportion of the down, the trading company emphasized the origin of "Hutterite" to highlight the warmth of down. Hutterite down is from ducks and geese collected from Hutterite communities in northern Canada. 

However, the investigators learned from the China Feather and Down Industrial Association and the Shanghai Garment Trade Association that the heat retention of down is directly related to the corresponding indexes of down fluffiness and content, which are affected by the growth cycle of geese and ducks. 

The longer the growth cycle, the higher the maturity of down and the stronger the warmth keeping performance. The large and mature birds display the best down quality.

In the case of the same species of birds, the quality of down is related to the maturity of the birds, but has nothing to do with the place of origin, according to media reports.

Xiji (Shanghai) Trading Co is mainly engaged in the sale of Canada Goose branded down jackets, according to the website of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (Shanghai).

Since September 2018, the company has opened the official flagship store of Canada Goose on Tmall and entrusted Shanghai Bodao e-commerce Co to undertake daily operations, maintenance and product release.

From the same month, the company's website announced that all of their down blends contain Hutterite down, considered the best and warmest Canadian down.

Given the webpage clicks of Canada Goose's Tmall flagship store hit 181 million clicks in 2020, and the sales volume reached 167 million yuan, the advertisement involved in the case is expected to have some impact.

Shanghai market regulator decided to impose a fine of 450,000 yuan on the trading company, ordering it to stop publishing illicit advertisements.