Thread: Beware of Illegal Replicas. Always Buy Genuine

One of our primary goals as a company is to ethically and legally sell top quality products.

If a product is illegal, it's illegal. Price, likeness - it doesn't matter - there are national and International laws, conventions and agreements that make retailing, importing and buying such products illegal. But these are just words, here's what really matters:

Authentic brands' products are rightly sanctioned with various ratings, standards and quality control proceedures; illegal replica products are not. Why would you risk your life using a safety device that has no testing, rating or sanctioning and who garnishes an income by immitating something else?

Or why would you use a part risking the entire cost of the car when it's primary credential is that it looks like another brands' product? I wouldn't want to personally! Ever seen someone use replica Toda cam gears on a $8,000 engine build, only to see it blow up on a Dyno as a result of a cracked cam gear? We have! Total saving: $150. Total cost: $8000. It's just not worth it.

And here's the other thing that really makes it shameful - you just don't know what you're buying. These 'retailers' are intentionally misleading you. Stealing your money. Imagine paying thousands on parts, only to find later on that they're fake and can't meet up to the safety or performance standards you thought they could. You then might sell them - at a significant loss because they're just not what you thought they were. No one wants to be taken for a ride like that!

Or perhaps you're looking at a second hand, advertised-as-authentic, part - say a bumper - that's at a good price, half of what a brand new version would cost. You buy it, only to find you a) have an illegal replica and b) paid top second-hand dollar for it! Everyone loses out, but the underlying fact remains - they're illegal and it's unethical. We all have a part to play here, demand an item is authentic and legal, and don't buy illegal replicas.

There are some great quality cost efficient options out there on the market, particularly US brands. Price is not the factor we're talking about here - the US brands illustrate that price and quality are often not one and the same. We're talking about using another brands fame illegally to garnish sales, illegal replicas and unethical retailers.

Update 1 - Bride Replica Seats on Trademe

We have noticed recently that there have been illegal replica of Bride seats popping up on Trademe. The first give away is the price. I will make it quite clear - not one single international dealer of Bride seats can sell Bride seats for 20-30% off retail pricing - it's impossible, discounts simply don't run that deep, and when GST and shipping is factored in, it's impossible. The second give away is the fact that they hold stock - often 5+ sets, of each seat. No one holds $40,000 worth of stock, especially here in NZ, of a seat which only a handful will buy. The last give away is the company(s) that sell these seats are the same company(s) that have been caught in the past selling fake, illegal Takata harnesses.

Other give aways include: Steel frames - Bride only use Aluminum. Fabric - cheap fabric is easily recognisable. Black backs - Bride only has Carbon, Kevlar or sparkled silver shells. No authenticity papers - every Bride seat comes with an authenticity paper. No exception. Bolster shape and design - they're actually very hard to replicate, and they look hideous. Quality - you'll see the difference - in the kevlar, fabric, carbon, finish, materials.

The final big give away - Bride has about 5 International dealers. 30 Years, 5 dealers. They don't speak a word of English. If you're not buying through an authorised International dealer, there's a very, very high chance it's a fake. It is very easy for us to prove the origin of a Bride seat here in New Zealand so never be afraid to ask for it's provenance.

These retailers use all the excuses in the book. They're made by someone else who is in the courts with Bride over copyright... We bought them off someone else so we don't know... Or some other obfuscated reason. They're also the same retailers who shift their stock and sell them under another name a few months later... Just don't go there.

Mac
mac@fortyone.co.nz
Fortyone Automotive Limited

Couple of warnings have been going out.

There's fake Blox, Skunk2 and ASR parts on the market now.

Blox - there are some seconds showing up on Trademe (discarded production pieces from the manufacturer - not a Blox product or sanctioned item at all) such as arms and nuts. There's good reasons why they were binned so don't touch em!

Skunk2 - They're warning of copied Pro Series manifolds currently so be wary.

ASR - the braces have been very poorly copied - brand name and all. They will be easy to spot.

We recommend buying only genuine products through reputable shops. We don't care if it's a Samsung TV, New Zealand oranges or a short shifter. Just keep it legit and you will avoid many, many problems - legally and with regards to safety!

Chatting to a customer a weekend back, he mentioned that there are more and more fake Skunk2 parts popping up. I've not seen this myself, and nor do I like relating second hand information, but I will say that with Xmas nearly upon us there is normally a peak in people wanting to sell you low quality, fake, illegal products. Just be wary and if in doubt use us freely to help identify illegal replicas from the real deals.

Also Function7 copies have been popping up. Fortunately they are soo poorly copied that it's very easy to distinguish between the two.

Been seeing a lot of the fake Bride seats, namely the 'Low Max' fixed back model. I would've never had known they were fake until I started wondering why so many people had these expensive seats in their car. Now when I look almost all the ones I see have a black plastic back not carbon, kevlar etc. Good write up, hopefully people will become more aware and not buy the low quality fakes

Crazy times! Just notified the Liason at Trademe of some 'Blox' auctions which are not actually Blox items. Specifically, some cam gears! They're using the Blox box and a Blox sticker on any old part, claiming they are Blox items. Just be careful - there's only one Blox Master Dealer here (guess?) and if it doesn't come through us and seems to good to be true then don't go there!

Oh damn, now Hondata is warning of copy K-Pro and S300!

Don't go there! You're risking your engine for the sake of saving a hundred or so!

K-Pro Counterfeit
S300 Counterfeit

Trademe putting their weight behind stopping copy, styled or themed parts:

Intellectual property rights rules on Trade Me - no fakes allowed! | Trade Me

Good. I'm sick of 90% of Mugen stuff on TM being copy. Although, how does that work with Slipstream etc selling copies of parts where the genuine ones are discontinued? eg Mugen body kits etc

Also Rota, Varrstoen, Versus...

Yeah but TM sound like it won't allow "style" bits , regardless of how honest you are about it. Will be interesting to see how it all pans out

Originally Posted by Shady ef9

His goods aren't sold as "enter brand name here" they are style... so I see no problem with that as he's not trying to pass them off as the genuine item.

My interpretation of the TM article, is that anything that is Copy/Style etc will be pulled. I guess thats why retailers are now calling things "M Style" not "Mugen Style" now.

If they stop allowing any "style" items then a lot of bodykit makers here will suffer as most kits here are "style" parts.

Yeah that's going to be a grey area, would like to see Mark's response because it seems like TM are going to wield the hammer. (I don't have any issue with him selling style kits either, I think it's great for the local market). But as Dieter mentioned, there's a lot of style parts that are going to have to be re marketed..

Looks like the few sentences below sum it up reasonably clearly..

If you have a product which isn’t the genuine article, but a copy, replica, counterfeit, fake, pirated version or knock off of the real deal, then you can’t sell it on the site. It doesn’t matter how honest you are when it comes to describing these non-authentic goods, the goods themselves are the issue.

but ...

We have an intellectual property rights (IPR) programme where we actively engage with the brand representatives responsible for protecting their brands intellectual property rights around the world. We proactively get in touch with them from time to time, and they contact us on a daily basis to report listings they believe are in breach of their rights.

When we are contacted by a rights holder we’re obliged to act, this can mean requesting more information from members to ascertain the nature of the goods, or removing listings from the site where they are an obvious breach of the rights holder’s IPR.

Is seems that the brand representatives responsible ie Volk/mugen/etc need to contact Trademe and say "Hey bro, this listing here is a copy of our product. Can you please remove it." and then action will be taken by Trademe. Nothing has been mentioned about public reporting a listing and action taken towards the reported listing? And I cant see companies like Mugen etc being active in reporting listings, not on Trademe.

Trademe will leave it up to distributors to advise them of fakes/styled/copies etc. We have been getting involved trying to pull a lot of the fake Mugen parts, most of the items listed now are genuine except for the odd bodykit's parts.

Styled parts will be a gray area such as the Mugen body-kits (M style), I am pulled between this as I like slipstream, they make good products, I have bought parts personally and will still probably will, but again I don't like copied products. An item that has taken the design of another manufacturer is still copy write infringement still, and it bugs the hell out of me when customers come in buying Mugen stickers and badges and then telling me they are going to put them on a spoiler or wheels that are "styled" to try and fob them off to look genuine.

We almost lost the Mugen brand in this country all together due to the amount of fake and copied items that were floating around on Trademe as it didn't make economic sense to carry a brand that you can buy another (fake) of trade me for a fraction of the price and its still looks the same.

Maybe they should price the stuff better then....

Better? Or more in your preferred price range?

Because there is a difference.

Originally Posted by R8edM

Better? Or more in your preferred price range?

Because there is a difference.

Better, If the market wishes to purchase replica product it indicates the original is overpriced IMHO.

It makes no difference to me....generally speaking I don't have any money.

Originally Posted by PrivateRyan

Although I wouldn't pay the price people do for items they are aware are fake, they still do.

If your advertised 'fake' products are selling then why not keep the price where it is!

I was reffering to "genuine" items...not the "fake" ones.

That depends entirely what sort of replica it is

And certainly I don't think thinks should be "replicated" within a certain time frame......But stuff that has been on the market for 5 + years or is no longer in production...whoop de do.

Money has been made, reduce the price.

^^ our argument of fakes v.s genuine will fall on deaf ears as we don't agree with each other.

So its not even worth my or your time greg
I agree to disagree.

Ill admit i buy fake stuff res covers etc but when it comes to the safety stuff always buy genuine etc headers exhaust mufflers intakes. suspension wheels

Wouldn't they just move to sella?