Chinese goods destroyed

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China is continuing to (very publicly) exhibit that they are cracking down on the counterfeit manufacturing that flourishes in the most densely populated country in the world.

USAUKonline.com reports that £21 million worth of knock off goods were seized and burned by Chinese police in a persistent attempt to prove that officials are limiting the amount of counterfeit goods that are produced in their country.


(Photo courtesy of usaukonline.com)

According to a recent report by the UN, approximately 75% of all seized counterfeits between 2008 and 2010 were from China. So while the £21 million of counterfeits destroyed seems like a substantial amount, they have a long way to go.

Here’s to hoping they don’t let up anytime soon.

Read the article here.

 

 

One of the “most prolific sellers” sentenced to 2.5 years

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One of the biggest sellers of counterfeit designer headphones in the UK has been sentenced to 2.5 years in the slammer.

Officials searched Michael Reeder’s home and found about $400,000 worth of counterfeit Monster and Sennheiser products. But Sennheiser, the German electronics company, claims that the stash was only a fraction of the goods that Reeder had sold online.

If Sennheiser’s assertion is accurate, the loot found in Reeder’s home was only 1% of the potential $40 million he has sold to individuals through the internet. 400,000 headphones sold seems like a steep accusation, but if it’s true it makes Reeder “one of the ‘most prolific sellers’ of counterfeit electronics in the UK.”

Read the entire article here.

Prom problems

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Prom season is well underway, or already over for a lot of individuals, but the battle against counterfeit prom dresses is still in full force.

It’s estimated by the ABPIA, the American Bridal and Prom Industry Association, that “more than 2,500 websites rip images of dresses off of legitimate designers’ websites and use them on their own websites without permission.” And truth be told, that number seems a little low.

The Dallas-Fort Worth NBC 5 News ran a story Wednesday about a high school girl and her mother’s nightmare: buying an expensive dress for an online discount that turned out to be a complete scam, hundreds of dollars down the drain.

Dashya McCuin purchased her dream dress off of a website that had great designer deals. She was assured that she would receive the gown in time for prom but as the date neared, all she got was an email written in broken English that apologized for not having her dress shipped in time and scornfully added, “maybe you can keep it for your next function?”

Gary Graham is the owner of Whatchamacallit, a boutique in Dallas, and keeps a knockoff version of a dress that he sells in his store:

Sherri Hill, the top designer in the prom dress industry, is highly counterfeited and has been fighting the battle against knock off manufacturers for years, but the fight is long but over. Pictured above is Graham’s authentic Sherri Hill (on right) and a knock off that was purchased online at a discount. The counterfeit dress had all of the original Sherri HIll photography but the knock off is full of fake feathers and inauthentic beading, not to mention it’s a completely different shade of blue.

Graham uses these dresses as an example of the potential hazards of buying online. Girls who scour the internet for bargain basement deals on high-end designs will find nothing but heartache if this pattern continues.

Read the entire article here.