£25,000 worth of counterfeit Nike trainers destined for eBay have been seized by Hertfordshire Trading Standards.
The shoes were found in raids at two houses in Broxbourne and Stevenage. Fake cosmetics were also found in Stevenage following complaints from three eBay buyers who suffered allergic reactions and tipped off Trading Standards.
That’s two down, but how many more to go? It constantly amazes me that some buyers are more than happy to buy fake goods at knock down prices so long as they’re aware up front they’re not genuine. All the time there are buyers there will be some sellers willing to risk up to 10 years in jail to supply them.
One Response
I don’t think that people buying this stuff think through what they are doing. I work for a sportswear/golf company and we are continually fighting against counterfeiters. People buy this stuff at knock-down prices and then complain that it isn’t much good. If they don’t realise that it is fake then the genuine company can get a bad name. Even if they do realise, it still means that the company loses sales – this can put British jobs at risk if it damages the market for the product.
Unfortunately Customs and Excise don’t have the resources to catch the stuff as it comes through the ports – I get very little reported to me by Customs (the cmplaints mostly come from the public or our distributors and we then get Trading Standards people involved).
The other problem is of course that criminal gangs can use counterfeit goods as a way of “laundering” money from other crime eg drugs. People seem to think that this is just government propaganda but it ain’t. It happens. So by buying counterfeits the public could be supporting the local drug dealer/people trafficker/ID stealer. Think about it.