From Italy, Germany, Netherlands and finally to China \u2013 SKF Brand Protection Team recently\u00a0unraveled a complex chain of counterfeit supply, traced in several steps back to a source in
\nChina.<\/p>\n
The case highlights the importance of knowing your supplier\u2019s supplier, and how\u00a0sources perceived as safe can be highly \u201ccontagious\u201d in terms of counterfeit supply.
\nA \u201csafe\u201d source can infect the whole supply chain\u00a0Are your sources really safe?
\nThe story started with one of the numerous raids that law enforcement officials carry out\u00a0across the globe against suspected counterfeit traders, this time in outskirts of a town in
\nnorthern Italy. During the raid, several counterfeit products were identified and confiscated\u00a0by Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza). In order to track down the source and stop
\npotentially dangerous goods from spreading in the market, SKF requested that the Italian\u00a0company disclose their source for the counterfeit goods.
\nThe Italian company\u2019s owner, which had been caught with the fake goods in stock, refused to\u00a0believe the products could be counterfeit. He had purchased them from a \u201csafe\u201d distributor in
\nGermany, whose owner he claimed to know personally very well. After a prolonged legal\u00a0process, SKF Brand Protection Team finally managed to learn the source, and the authorities
\nordered the confiscated goods to be destroyed.<\/p>\n
From the Italy to Germany
\nOnce learning of the source in Germany, SKF Brand Protection Team moved quickly to track\u00a0down the company, using the evidence gathered in the Italian raid. The German trader
\nunderstood the seriousness of the situation, and eventually agreed to cooperate with SKF;\u00a0disclosing full information on other customers that had been affected, and the source of the
\ncounterfeit goods. Their supplier was a trading company in Netherlands. An investigation of\u00a0the Dutch supplier revealed another company in the Rotterdam area as the original importer
\nto Europe.<\/p>\n
Rotterdam – \u201cthe Gateway to Europe\u201d
\nBeing the largest port in Europe, and having a strategic location on the North Sea,
\nRotterdam is sometimes referred to as \u201cthe Gateway to Europe\u201d. This was also where the\u00a0counterfeit bearings were imported into Europe. The Rotterdam-based company had
\npreviously tried to import counterfeit bearings, which Dutch customs successfully had\u00a0stopped and destroyed. With this second case the company had made a final wrong move,
\nand was forced to close operations last year (2014). During the investigation, it was found\u00a0that the Rotterdam trader had convinced some customers that he had a reliable source in
\nAsia, whom purchased directly from \u201cSKF in Singapore\u201d.
\nThe only proof provided, was a scanned copy of an old shipping label, which unfortunately\u00a0mislead some customers. As often in these cases, the actually supplier was based in China,
\nnot in Singapore, and had no affiliation to SKF. Customers should also note that not only\u00a0shipping labels are copied, even fake certificates of origin\/conformity are circulating. If
\ncounterfeiters can make counterfeit bearings, which visually are looking better and better,\u00a0one can imagine how easily they can make a fake piece of paper.
\nA long and complex route to market, with several pitfalls\u00a0This case stresses the complex route to market counterfeit goods can have, and that no\u00a0matter how safe a supplier seems, counterfeits can enter the chain at many points. The case\u00a0showed how several companies acted opportunistically, looking for \u201cgood deals\u201d on the\u00a0market, and some went further to willfully trick customers. Furthermore it shows the\u00a0importance of being suspicious of companies claiming to have a supply \u201cdirectly from\u201d SKF,
\nor distributors that previously were authorized by SKF.<\/p>\n
The most reliable source of current\u00a0authorized SKF distributors is available on www.skf.com, under \u201cFind a distributor\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Italy, Germany, Netherlands and finally to China \u2013 SKF Brand Protection Team recently\u00a0unraveled a complex chain of counterfeit supply, traced in several steps back to a source in China. The case highlights the importance of knowing your supplier\u2019s supplier, and how\u00a0sources perceived as safe can be highly \u201ccontagious\u201d in terms of counterfeit supply. A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1747,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions\/1747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/donoupoglou.gr\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}