The number of counterfeit electronics is growing on marketplaces

The share of counterfeits of equipment from international manufacturers on Russian marketplaces has doubled over the year and in smartphones it is 31% of offers, in laptops – 30%, and in smart watches – 63%, calculated in IQ Technology. Most often counterfeit Apple and Samsung electronics. Among the reasons, market participants cite a decrease in control over product falsification by brands that have left the Russian market, believing that the share of counterfeit products will continue to grow. The sites themselves, however, assure that the share of counterfeit products does not exceed 0.1%.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the data of the legal agency IQ Technology, according to which, from July 2022 to July 2023, the number of counterfeits of equipment of brands that left the country almost doubled on Russian marketplaces. According to the company, if in 2022 counterfeit smartphones accounted for 12% of the total supply, now they are already 31%. In the laptop segment, the share increased from 22% to 31%, small household appliances – from 15% to 34%, smart watches – from 35% to 63%, headphones and speakers – from 27% to 69%. The study analyzed 15 thousand product cards in the relevant categories on Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex Market, Sbermegamarket and AliExpress.

As Alexander Logunov, managing partner of IQ Technology, explained to Kommersant, devices from well-known brands such as Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi are most often counterfeited in smartphones. “The fakes are made in the design of the original, but have different sizes and a different operating system, if we are talking about Apple devices, then Android is installed instead of iOS. The box is made of poor quality paper, and the image is applied in an excellent way,” he said.

According to the top manager, a counterfeit laptop is more difficult to recognize, since it differs from the original primarily in internal elements: a hard drive, motherboard, RAM and processor can be replaced with cheap analogues. According to Mr. Logunov, counterfeit electronics are produced mainly in Pakistan, China and India.

According to the GK “F + tech | Marvel”, in the first five months of 2023, the share of counterfeit audio electronics in the Russian market grew from 10% to 25% year-on-year, “most often these are copies of headphones and music speakers of well-known brands – Apple, Marshall, JBL and others.”

Ozon assured that the company tracks counterfeit products, including using a neural network. Wildberries does not agree with IQ Technology’s assessments, emphasizing that all transactions are monitored in real time, and before buying, the buyer can familiarize himself with the rating of goods and sellers. AKIT President (the association includes Wildberries, Ozon, DNS, etc.) Artem Sokolov said that, according to the organization, the share of fakes on the sites does not exceed 0.1%. In “Yandex Market” and “Sbermegamarket” did not answer “Kommersant”. AliExpress declined to comment.

If a small number of fakes are theoretically capable of entering the market, “this happens through the cross-border trade channel,” said Anton Guskov, representative of the Association of Trading Companies and Producers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment (Samsung, Huawei, M.Video-Eldorado, etc.).

At the same time, the interlocutor of “Kommersant” in one of the marketplaces explained that due to amendments to the law on consumer rights in 2018 (see “Kommersant” dated July 19, 2018), where they added the definition of the concept of product aggregators on the Internet, platforms can not interfere with the description of goods from applicants. “If the marketplace changes or removes the word ‘original’ from the product description, it will be responsible for the products on its own, which no one wants to do,” he said.

Previously, the copyright holders themselves were interested in protecting their brands, monitored and fought against fakes, using all possible legal methods to force them out, withdraw and destroy counterfeit goods, says Alina Akinshina, CEO of Online Patent. According to her, until February 24, 2022, counterfeit sellers acted more cautiously, “before they should have been afraid of claims from copyright holders – now there is nothing to be afraid of, since manufacturers do not monitor the Russian market.” According to the expert, “taking into account trends” the proportion of fakes will only grow.

Timofey Kornev