Apple: Many 'genuine' Apple products on Amazon are fake
- by Emilio Sims
- in Money
- — Oct 21, 2016
The situation, says Apple, is even worse where third-party sellers are concerned. This system may seem unfazed, but not for long.
Apple is used to these kinds of lawsuits.
Monday's lawsuit took aim at Mobile Star because, after buying a dozen iPhone chargers and cables from Amazon, the e-tailer told Apple the products had been supplied by Mobile Star. This makes the counterfeit items hard to distinguish.
Apple, Mobile Star, and Amazon did not respond to requests for comment. It's become a large enough problem that the Department of Defense is now allowing contractors to recover the cost of a counterfeit product if they become aware of the problem within 60 days of purchase. And the last thing we need these days is more electronics catching on fire.
Apple is regularly taking steps to combat counterfeit accessories.
The technology company said that it had recently purchased a number of Apple power adapters and charging and syncing cables that were directly sold by Amazon.com, and determined that they were counterfeit.
"Visual inspection of counterfeit adapters that Apple disassembled showed the counterfeits have improper soldering of internal wiring and some even lack critical safety fuses to protect against overheating in the event of a power surge". The safety of customers is the most at risk with this recent development given that knock-offs have not undergone industry-standard consumer safety testing. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has since removed the questionable products from its online marketplace. Since these counterfeits were sold directly by Amazon, consumers are less likely to be aware that those products were outsourced. The platform has released a statement clarifying that it has zero tolerance for the vending of such knock offs on its site and pursues wrongdoers aggressively. Of course the first place you visit is the brand's website and buy through them original accessories. The lawsuit has been filed against Mobile Star LLC for trademark infringement. One reason why these products became an immediately popular product is because they were using Apple's own images, and sold the items for a much smaller price tag compared to the pricing listed on Apple's website.
