The number of counterfeit electronics is growing on marketplaces
Source：Kommersant
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Moscow
Update Time：2023/08/18
The share of fakes of equipment from international manufacturers on Russian marketplaces has doubled over the year and is 31% of offers in smartphones, 30% in laptops, and 63% in smartwatches, IQ Technology calculated. Most often, Apple and Samsung electronics are forged. Market participants among the reasons cite a decrease in control over the falsification of products by brands that have left the Russian market, believing that the share of counterfeit goods will continue to grow. The sites themselves, however, assure that the share of counterfeit does not exceed 0.1%.
Kommersant got acquainted with the data of the IQ Technology legal agency, according to which, from July 2022 to July 2023, the number of fakes of equipment of brands that left the country almost doubled on Russian marketplaces. According to the company, if in 2022 counterfeit smartphones accounted for 12% of the total supply, now it is already 31%. In the laptop segment, the share increased from 22% to 31%, small household appliances — from 15% to 34%, smartwatches - from 35% to 63%, headphones and speakers — from 27% to 69%. The study analyzed 15 thousand. product cards in the corresponding categories on Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex Market, Sbermegamarket, and AliExpress.
As Alexander Logunov, managing partner of IQ Technology, explained to Kommersant, devices of well-known brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi are most often forged in smartphones.
"The fakes are made in the design of the original, but they have different sizes and different operating systems, if we are talking about Apple devices, then Android is installed instead of iOS. The box is made of low—quality paper and the image is applied in an excellent way," he said.
According to the top manager, it is more difficult to recognize a counterfeit laptop, since it differs from the original primarily by internal elements: the hard disk, motherboard, RAM and processor can be replaced with cheap analogs. According to Mr. Logunov, counterfeit electronics are produced mainly in Pakistan, China, and India.
According to the assessment of GC "F+ tech | Marvel", in the first five months of 2023, the share of fake audio electronics in the Russian market increased from 10% to 25% year—on—year, "most often these are copies of headphones and music speakers of well-known brands - Apple, Marshall, JBL and others."
Ozon assured that the company tracks counterfeit products, including using a neural network. Wildberries does not agree with IQ Technology estimates, emphasizing that all transactions are tracked in real-time, and before buying, the buyer can get acquainted with the rating of goods and sellers. The president of AKIT (the association includes Wildberries, Ozon, DNS, etc.) Artem Sokolov said that, according to the organization, the share of fakes on the sites does not exceed 0.1%. Yandex Market and Sbermegamarket did not respond to Kommersant. AliExpress declined to comment.
If a small number of fakes are theoretically able to enter the market, "this happens through the channel of cross-border trade," said Anton Guskov, representative of the Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Household and Computer Equipment (Samsung, Huawei, M.Video-Eldorado, etc.).
At the same time, the interlocutor of Kommersant in one of the marketplaces explained that due to amendments to the law on consumer rights in 2018 (see Kommersant of July 19, 2018), which added a definition of the concept of commodity aggregators on the Internet, sites cannot interfere with the description of goods from applicants. "If the marketplace changes or removes the word "original" in the product description, it will be responsible for the products on its own, which no one wants to do," he said.
How the share of counterfeit headphones and smart watches has grown in Russia
Previously, the copyright holders themselves were interested in protecting their brands, monitored and fought against counterfeits, using all possible legal methods of their displacement, seizure, and destruction of counterfeits, said Alina Akinshina, CEO of Online Patent. According to her, until February 24, 2022, sellers of counterfeit goods acted more cautiously, "earlier they should have been afraid of claims from copyright holders — now there is nothing to be afraid of since manufacturers do not monitor the Russian market." According to the expert, "taking into account trends," the share of fakes will only grow.
Source: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6109582?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop