(TÜV SÜD: Munich) -- The European market is being flooded with increasing numbers of counterfeit products. These fakes not only cause financial losses for manufacturers, but also generate major safety problems for consumers when statutory safety tests are sidestepped in their production. TÜV SÜD has joined forces with customs authorities to establish stricter procedures against counterfeiting. Only recently, a load of car jacks bearing fake quality marks and with major safety flaws was impounded at the Finnish border.
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“The business of counterfeiting products and quality marks is anything but a peccadillo,” warns Dirk Eilers, CEO of the product services division at TÜV SÜD AG. “Product piracy not only causes immense damage to the economy as a whole, but also gambles with the safety and health of consumers.”
The German Ministry for the Economy (BMWi) estimates that in 2008, product piracy generated damages of 15 billion euros and the loss of approximately 70,000 jobs in Germany alone.
“Of course, when counterfeit products are placed on the market, the statutory regulations concerning safety-relevant testing are also subverted—for example, those defined in the German Equipment and Product Safety Act," explains Joachim Birnthaler, CEO of TÜV SÜD Product Service GmbH. “As a consequence, risk-laden or unsafe products increasingly make their way onto the market.”
Since pirated products generally also bear fake quality marks, TÜV SÜD has decided to take stricter action against the manufacturers and distributors of the counterfeit products. “This is an important step to protect not only our brand and our customers, but also consumers in general," stresses Birnthaler. TÜV SÜD is thus a founding member of Certification Industry Against Counterfeiting (CIAC), an alliance of leading international product certification organizations. CIAC members take global action, coordinated by Interpol, to track down product piracy, quality-mark fraud, and “quality mark tourism” with great success.
“Only recently, we worked with the Finnish customs authority to stop a consignment of fake car jacks at the EU border; the products represented a safety hazard and were destroyed,” reports Birnthaler. “This is a remarkable achievement, primarily because the product pirates had shown enormous criminal energy, concealing the actual origins of the goods and the routes taken by the consignment.”
The discovery and tracing of counterfeit products involves extensive inspection efforts. To catch the products directly at the EU’s external borders, TÜV SÜD and the other CIAC members work closely with European customs authorities on border seizure operations.
“But even if pirated products actually make it onto the market, the pressure of inspections is maintained by national market surveillance authorities and criminal investigation departments,” stresses Birnthaler. When pirated products are discovered they are removed from the market and the “ringleaders” face legal proceedings. Abuse of registered trademarks can result in heavy fines and prison sentences of up to five years, according to Birnthaler.
Eilers believes this in-depth global collaboration between CIAC, customs, and market surveillance authorities and police will continue to improve the detection rate of fraudulent activities. “We will continuously step up our battle against the product pirates and extend the protective measures which have been successful in Europe into other regions,” announces the TÜV SÜD CEO division, explaining that by doing so, TÜV SÜD is protecting more than its own quality mark and brand name. “After all, when unsafe counterfeit products are removed from the market, this primarily benefits consumers, too,” summarizes Eilers.
Falsified certificates also raise red flags.
Along with counterfeit marks, TÜV SÜD experts stay vigilant in regard to spotting fake certificates in the marketplace. “Occasionally, noncertified companies falsely claim or advertise that their company is certified by modifying the certificate of a business or organization who has invested the time, energy, and money to achieve the certification. This practice can give a false impression of certification to unsuspecting companies that may pursue business relationships with an organization, damage the credibility of the organization whose certificate has been tampered, and undermine the entire certification industry,” says Earl Buckmiller, manager of the management systems certification body at TÜV SÜD America Inc.
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