Counterfeit products

skinny90

Hi All,

I hope this is the correct forum for this.

What is the process of a) reporting counterfeit goods. b) what happens when you do so.

I am not talking about stalls on the streets. I am talking about bricks and motor stores posing as reputable retailers selling what would be considered an official product. ie Beats headfones, apple accessories, mobile phone accessories, fashion and clothing.

I have seen countless mobile phone/phone accessory stores around the country selling Beats headphones, otterboxes, official apple accessories well below the RRP. and I am pretty confident these are counterfeit. The Packaging for one is a dead give away, its cheap, the glue is well visible etc.
In one store they had the headphones out on display. They were beats Studio with bluetooth. Pressing the bluetooth button I could tell there cheao click and it also sounded was like a hallow in the cup where the plastic holds everything together.
In the same shop they sell beats pill speakers and again they have them on demo. when demo'ing the product you either get a german rebotic voice saying to connect your device or you get a chinese voice.
This same shop sells bose speakers also and granted they are below RRP they are all still considerable amounts of money.

They have mutliple stores around the country and are well known

A store in the same shopping center sells alot of otter-boxes and whats displayed as official apple accessories.
Again they are below RRP but claim to be official. They are not. all of the packaging from afar looks good. but when look close its the same signs as before. Its cheap, typically the apple stuff boxes have dents/holes/signs of glue. The otter-box stuff, the very same.

I have researched a bit online and what people describe to look out for is clearly visible in the above examples.

I have now started to see smaller fashion outlets do the same. With converse, Raybans and bags even Jewelers selling MK watches and mi moneda

They are very similar but the real deal.

What annoys me is all of the above examples people are completely misold and attracted to the price. The thoughts of handing over €150 euro for beats headphones or 200 euro for a Bose speaker but which are fake but advertised as the real deal is sickening.

What is the process for reporting these types of business's and is it worth sometimes while?

Thanks

colm_mcm

https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/assist-us/drug-and-tobacco-smuggling/how-to-report-suspicious-activity.aspx

my3cents

tbh I wouldn't waste my time. In the UK they have trading standards which do quite a good job with these things, not perfect as they are typically underfunded and understaffed but at least they are a body with the job of doing exactly what you are asking in the Ireland we don't seem to careless about it.

Another option is reporting the individual retailers to the manufacturers involved.

rubadub

In this article the consumer went to the gardai and the seller was fined €1000

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/man-fined-euro1k-over-selling-fake-apple-goods-331543.html

You can email the gardai these days.

People have died due to fires caused by this stuff. A fake nike t shirt or phone cover is not going to kill you, but fake electronics plugged into the mains should be taken very seriously.