Recently, some netizens have reported that the "120W" charger they purchased has a slow charging speed, which has triggered widespread concern about the problem of false power standards of chargers.The investigation found that most of the "120W" and "100W" fast charging heads sold by many e-commerce platforms have actual output powers of only 22W to 22.5W.Some merchants even admitted that "120W" is just a product model or trademark, not the actual power.
Industry insiders pointed out that this type of virtual chargers generally lack overload protection and have high ripples, which not only seriously damages the health of mobile phone batteries, but also mostly use non-fireproof materials for the casing, which can easily catch fire after a short circuit, posing a major safety hazard.
Similar phenomena are not isolated. Previously, "Qianhe" in "Qianhe soy sauce" was registered as a trademark, and "No. 1 local pork" was actually "No. 1 local" pork. According to this logic, the "120W charger" is probably just a "120W" brand charger, and the number has nothing to do with the real performance.
In response to this type of "scheming trademarks", the State Intellectual Property Office issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Trademark Use" in March 2026.We will clearly focus on controlling the use of registered trademarks with product names and slogans, causing public misunderstanding.
The Trademark Law, which is being revised, will also tighten the review source, use supervision and punishment. It will clearly list "the public's tendency to misunderstand the quality and origin of the goods" as a situation that will not allow registration, and will move the penalty link from invalidation after registration to the application stage.
Xie Wenqiang, legal adviser to the Sichuan Provincial Consumer Council, believes that it is difficult for businesses to defend themselves on the grounds that "120W is the product model rather than the power", and it is difficult to obtain legal support.
Citing Article 20 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, he pointed out: "Operators should provide consumers with truthful and comprehensive information about the quality, performance, use, validity period, etc. of goods or services, and shall not make false or misleading publicity." Merchants prominently mark the words "120W", "120W Super Flash Charge" and "95% full in 30 minutes" on the main image, title and product shell of the product, which is enough to mislead consumers into thinking that the charger has 120W charging power.
Even if the actual power is marked as 22W in an inconspicuous place on the details page, or later claimed that "120W is just the model number," Xie Wenqiang believes that this approach of "misleading in a significant way and disclosing the truth in a covert way" still constitutes false publicity and consumer fraud.
He suggested,Consumers who encounter such falsely labeled products can claim "refund one and compensate three" in accordance with Article 55 of the "Consumer Rights Protection Law"; if the compensation amount is less than 500 yuan, they can claim 500 yuan.
