Fake Apple stores found in other countries after blogger exposes five counterfeit shops in China
The problem of fake Apple retail stores turn out not to be limited to the southwestern city of Kumming in China, as identified last week by an American blogger living there: similar fakes exist in countries from Croatia to Venezuela, according to readers who have contacted her.
Two of the five fake Apple stores in the southwestern city of Kumming identified by the writer on the Birdabroad blog last week have since been shut down by Chinese officials, according to a local government website there.
But Chinese officials said they would not be taking any action against the other three stores, which like the other two prominently displayed Apple signs and logos, because they did not find any fake Apple products for sale, according to a report by a local newspaper posted on the Kunming city government's website. Apple has 13 official resellers in Kumming, but no official stores.
The latest post on the Birdabroad blog says that readers have contacted her with details about "fake (or at least seriously questionable)" Apple stores in countries including Burma, Croatia, Columbia, Slovenia, Spain and Venezuela. A number of other fake Apple stores were also identified in China, including one in the city of Xi'an.
Apple has 331 official stores worldwide which in the past financial quarter brought in $3.5bn (£2.15bn) of revenue. Their ability to attract customers and so generate revenues for consumer electronics companies seeing diminishing returns – or which can sell pricier goods using the company's brand cachet – seems to have them popular, if expensive, targets for copying.
After the Birdabroad blogpost appeared on Wednesday, the Kunming Trade and Industry Bureau inspected more than 300 electronics stores in Kunming and found the five fake Apple stores, the city government's website said. Calls by the Associated Press to the Kunming Trade and Industry Bureau went unanswered on Monday.
The maker of the iPhone and other hit gadgets has four company stores in China– two in Beijing and two in Shanghai – and various official resellers.
The proliferation of the fake stores underlines the slow progress that China's government is making in countering a culture of a rampant piracy and widespread production of bogus goods that is a major irritant in relations with trading partners.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/25/fake-apple-stores-not-limited-to-china
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