Oakley battles counterfeiters

That counterfeiting of eyewear represents serious money for some and a serious headache for others is vividly demonstrated by the fact that Oakley has just reported record seizures of fakes for 2003.
The manufacturer has revealed that it confiscated 2.7m counterfeit products, primarily sunglasses, worldwide in 2003, with an estimated street value of US$427m. Counterfeiting of the brand is an escalating problem, up 156 per cent on the previous year when some 1.1 million products were confiscated.
Oakley added that 447 sellers of fakes were arrested worldwide, including 111 outside the US, as it worked closely with 'law enforcement agencies' to combat counterfeiting.
In addition, the sunglass giant has also increased its efforts in limiting the sale of illegal products over the internet, shutting down more than 20,000 auctions of counterfeit Oakley product on sites such as eBay.com and yahoo.com.
It collected more than $220,000 in recompense, which would be used in future anti-counterfeiting operations.
Chief executive Jim Jannard said: 'We take our brand and image very seriously and will look to the ends of the earth to stop the unauthorised use of our name, designs and trademarks.' He added that the company had raised the profile of its anti-counterfeit programmes, focusing on international arrests, as much of the manufacturing of illegal products took place overseas.
That the problem is an industry-wide one for manufacturers is backed up by eyewear companies from De Rigo to Luxottica. From March to September 2003 De Rigo UK had 23 letters from Trading Standards notifying that suspected counterfeit product had been seized, an increase of 35 per cent on the same period in 2002.
All of the Police sunglass samples seized by Trading Standards were proven to be counterfeits, and were inferior to De Rigo's standards. Perversely, some had price tags that, at £120, were even more expensive than the genuine sunglasses.
De Rigo UK's managing director Sylvia Nanni was thankful for the work of Trading Standards in addressing the issue and protecting brand names, adding that in 100 per cent of the cases the standards body had disposed of the goods.
In these cases, 70 per cent of the people caught in possession of the counterfeits were given a formal caution for 'exposing for sale sunglasses bearing unauthorised registered trademarks contrary to section 92(1)(b) of the Trade Marks Act 1994'.
The reports received by De Rigo were countrywide, and surprisingly there were more in Cheshire and Scotland than in London.
There was also concern that some fake product was improving in quality, perhaps indicating that a major manufacturer was being used in the Far East.
Nanni was in no doubt that the availability of counterfeits affected the image of all suppliers, but highlighted another area of concern. 'It becomes an even more serious issue when the health of consumers is involved. The poor quality of the lenses and frames may not meet European Standards and could cause harm to the user,' she said.
This was a major problem and a more recent development, explained Andy Cockayne, managing director of Marchon UK.
'Counterfeiters stamp fake sunglasses with the CE mark, while the items clearly are not up to the standard and pose a danger to the consumers.'
He said counterfeiting was an annoying and ongoing concern, although not experienced on the scale reported by Oakley.
'We've always had a steady issue of counterfeiting and we prosecute where possible. Opticians really only see the problem when people come in to them asking them to return the models to the manufacturer.'
He added that the problem affected the lower price point brands where it was a little more believable price-wise and often the models were not even copies of original sunglasses.
When it came to tackling counterfeiting, he said it was difficult for companies to work together, especially as the sources and the products were many and varied. The only thing to do was to let other companies know when their brands were also seized.
Luxottica's Alan Niblo, who is regularly called by Trading Standards to identify fake product, explained that it could be difficult to succeed against counterfeiters, who targeted the best-selling lines for the season. Some Trading Standards forces were more proactive than others and it called for action from both manufacturers and practitioners. 'If an optician reports a trader of false goods, Trading Standards will need a witness who can tell that the product is fake if they are to get a prosecution.'
He agreed that the copying of CE marks on product with cheap lenses was damaging to the brands.
Counterfeiting could be a nuisance for practices when they were called on to repair broken goods, or when a patient paid full price at an official supplier and someone picked up a similar fake for next to nothing.
Some of the product consumers sent to Luxottica for repairs had been purchased abroad, with people paying up to £80 for fakes when on holiday.
However, the most audacious case of selling counterfeit designs occurred a number of years back, when an individual turned up at Bausch & Lomb's head office in Kingston upon Thames to offer fake Ray-Bans to the then distributor, before being taken away by police.
rory.broganrbi.co.uk