News

Counterfeit Coach, Louis Vuitton, Prada under fire in NYC

Bargain hunters from around the world flock to Manhattan’s Chinatown for bags, jewelry and other accessories bursting onto sidewalks from storefronts along Canal Street. Among the goods are luxury items labeled “Prada” or “Louis Vuitton” or some other luxury brand — counterfeits sold for a pittance. In some cases, handbags going for $2,000 on Fifth Avenue can be had downtown for, say, $20. They’re seductive fakes Until now, the law enforcement focus has been on catching the sellers. But if a proposed bill passes the City Council, customers caught buying counterfeits could be punished with a fine of up to $1,000, or up to a year in prison. The New York City legislation, if passed, would be the first in the United States to criminalize the purchase of counterfeits. Council member Margaret Chin, who introduced the bill, said at a public hearing Thursday that counterfeits deprive the city of at least $1 billion in tax revenue a year that could support community improvements. What’s more, she says, the counterfeit trade has been linked to child labor and the funding of organized crime and terror groups. “For tourists, it’s fun, it’s a bit of adventure,” Chin says. “We have to let people know that if you engage in this activity you are committing a crime.” On the street, day after day, sellers press their hard-sell routines. “Rolex! Chanel!” a man on a street corner whispers someone walking by. “Get this before the police do!” he adds with a grin. Buyers are walked to a designated spot where they’re quietly shown photos of the desired goods. Choices are then signaled to another person who disappears to an undisclosed location — a vendor’s back room, a nearby apartment, the back of a van. The item arrives within minutes, and cash exchanges hands.

Spotting counterfeit golf gear

As golf’s technology gets more advanced, the cost of golf clubs keeps going up. That can bring out the deal seeker in all of us. But those high prices are also making high end golf equipment the perfect target for fakes. If you want to win like Tiger Woods or swing like Titleist sensation Adam Scott, the cost of gearing up for the game can be $2,000 for the newest technology. The search for deals sends some money-conscious golfers online, but before you click “buy” be warned – “They’re like ‘hey I’m getting a great deal,’ well, you get what you pay for,” Jason Rocker ofKeepgolfreal.com said. A simple search can send you to a legitimate looking site; counterfeit clubs can still cost hundreds of dollars, which may seem pretty expensive for a fake. “They are making it just enticing enough to say that seems legitimate enough in terms of price that it’s a good deal, but not so outrageous that it’s a dead giveaway,” Rocker said. To the naked eye counterfeit golf clubs and golf balls look very similar to the real deal. The real difference is inside. “When you open them up, a typical club is weighted, it’s hollowed out intentionally to make sure that it has the right angle, the right flow, the right weight. The counterfeit club is solid; you may as well be hitting the ball with a ball-peen hammer,” Rocker said.

In China‚ fake European wine more worrying than tariffs

Bruno Paumard, the cellar master at a vineyard in China, can’t stop laughing while describing a bottle of supposedly French wine a friend gave him two years ago.  It’s white wine, with a label proclaiming it is from the vineyards of Romanee-Conti, the bottle bearing the logo that is on bottles of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, and declares its origin as Montpellier in southern France. Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, better known for highly prized and highly priced vintages from France’s Burgundy region, makes only a tiny amount of white wine, labeled Montrachet. It has nothing to do with the equally prestigious Lafite, which is from the Bordeaux region, and neither brand is produced anywhere near Montpellier.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/09/china-wine-fakes-idUSL3N0EI0YJ20130609

World Anti-Counterfeiting Day

The automobile industry will mark World Anti-Counterfeiting Day on June 8 by urging customers to use genuine auto spare parts. The initiative is being undertaken by the Anti-Counterfeiting Group of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Over 1,075 dealers, stockists and distributors of two-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicle manufacturers such as Bajaj, Hero MotoCorp, TVS, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Volkswagen India and Volvo Eicher are participating in this awareness drive.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/world-anticounterfeiting-day-today/article4791939.ece

Fake Drug Pipeline Undercuts Malaria Progress

The Wall Street Journal examines the global trade in fake, counterfeit and otherwise substandard  malaria medication, in which China and particularly Guangzhou’s African community appear to play a  substantial part. From Benoît Faucon, Colum Murphy and Jeanne Whalen: When customs officials in Luanda, Angola, searched a cargo container from China, they found something hidden inside a shipment of loudspeakers: 1.4 million packets of counterfeit Coartem, a malaria drug made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG.  The discovery, last June, led to one of the largest seizures of phony medicines ever. The fakes—enough to treat more than half the country’s annual malaria cases, had they been genuine—are part of a proliferation of bogus malaria drugs in Africa that threatens to undermine years of progress in tackling the disease. China’s foreign ministry said the country “has always attached great importance to drug safety and resolutely combats the…manufacture and sale of counterfeit medicines.” The ministry added that it is “not aware” of evidence that any fake Coartem found in Africa came from China.

 http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/05/fake-drug-pipeline-undercuts-malaria-progress/

Schaeffler destroys 26 tons of counterfeit rolling bearings

Rolling bearings of various types and sizes are conveyed by the gripper arm of an excavator into a scrap press with a loud crash. The bearings leave the press chopped and broken into pieces or so badly damaged that they are rendered unusable. Large-size bearings with an outside diameter of more than one meter, which are even too big for the scrap press, are destroyed with a cutting torch. All these bearings are counterfeit products marked with the INA and FAG brand, which were confiscated in raids. The objective of this operation is to make the bearings unusable. After a spectacular operation in 2007, in which around 40 tons of counterfeit bearings were destroyed at the Schaeffler company site in Schweinfurt, and numerous other operations to destroy counterfeit goods worldwide, around 26 tons of counterfeit bearings with a value of more than one million euros were destroyed this time at the premises of INTERSEROH Franken Rohstoff GmbH in Schweinfurt. A large proportion of the counterfeit products originate from raids at bearing distributors in Europe, for example, in Italy and Great Britain. But some of the counterfeit bearings are also from Germany. “Brand and product piracy is not a phenomenon that is limited to China or South East Europe. It also takes place right on our doorstep”, says Ingrid Bichelmeir-Böhn, leader of the Global Brand Protection Team at Schaeffler.

City busts gang of swindlers selling fake iPhones

Shanghai police have busted a gang who conned people by claiming to be employees telecom companies and selling fake iPhones.    The gang has so far admitted to more than 2,000 scams nationwide this year and raked in profits of over 300,000 yuan (US$48,983), police said. Officers said they had detained 18 suspects, including their gang leader, surnamed Liu. The con game came to light on May 15 when a woman claimed she received a call from a telecom company staffer who was promoting iPhones for 1,600 yuan. The caller said the money would be returned to them in installments in two years. When she received the iPhone, she realized she was cheated.  Police traced the gang through the courier companies who did their deliveries. Two undercover police officers raided Liu’s warehouse on May 23 and seized nearly 400 fake cell phones of famous brands like iPhone and Nokia and more than 2,100 fake recharging cards.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8260759.html