10 Business Fakes in China
China has become known as the epicenter for producing a wide variety of counterfeit and bootlegged consumer products, but a trend has emerged over the past few years of faking full retail operations. A relatively new phenomenon, these rogue counterfeit businesses are a problem for companies that are trying to establish a brand image in China’s emerging economy. While some of these operations sell actual products from the legitimate companies, many simply copy the retail format, right down to even the colors and slogans. Other forms of this type of counterfeiting have followed in the wake of major consumer trends, where illegally copying products, brands, or intellectual property of successful companies has turned into big business in China. More after the break...
01. Apple Stores
Recently, the discovery of illegitimate Apple stores in several Chinese cities sparked controversy both in China and the U.S. The fake Apple store, which was uncovered by the Bird Abroad blog , had similar signage, layout and even salespeople as real Apple stores. However, BirdAbroad picked out several key details not common among true Apple stores and correctly pointed out the stores as fake. The stores claimed to have real Apple products, but were not licensed or operated by the company. Quickly following the public uproar—which included angry customers storming the stores in question demanding refunds—several of the stores were closed, not for their fraudulent use of the Apple brand, but for the lack of proper business licenses. (ChinaFotoPress | Getty Images)