The OEM works with South African authorities and has a large shipment of illegal copies of its products seized in the Philippines.
According to Journal.com, the South East Asia Anti-Counterfeit Team and the National Bureau of
Investigation have seized counterfeit HP products amounting to P18,417,924 ($430,124.34/€307,189.67) in a Metro Manila raid.
The website states that this is “the biggest amount of counterfeit HP products to be recovered by local operatives in a single raid in years”, adding that 12 people have been arrested for allegedly manufacturing and then distributing the products to retail outlets and end users in the National Capital Region.
The products recovered in the raid included 16,656 finished inks, 183 finished toner cartridges, 613 unfinished toner cartridges, 3,237 unfinished inkjet cartridges, 22 toner flat packages, ink filling machines and counterfeiting equipment and components.
HP’s work with South African authorities meanwhile paid off, with a seizure made of counterfeit HP supplies in Pretoria. The company says it assisted South African law enforcement officials, who confiscated about 3,200 fake toner cartridges in a “highly co-ordinated strike”.
According to HP, the “police action saw authorities raid the offices and warehouses of three companies”, whilst “in addition to the illegal items, police confiscated documents and other valuable intelligence that will lead to additional anti-counterfeit actions”.
ITweb.co.za added that the seizure had found that the counterfeiting network in question was importing fakes from China through the Port of Durban, adding that this hit “expected to reduce the level of counterfeit products being distributed in the region”.
HP stated that in the last four years it has assisted in seizing nearly 9 million counterfeit cartridges, components and other products in the EMEA region, adding that it has mounted 5,000 separate investigations in over 90 countries globally in the same period, with 30 million units seized. Enforcements are led by police or administrative organisations.
Fabrica Campoy, GM for HP IPG in SA, said: “People who buy counterfeit print cartridges and other fake merchandise believe mistakenly that they’re receiving original products, and they deserve the… performance for which they’re paying.
“Through its Anti-Counterfeiting Programme, HP actively educates its customers and partners to be vigilant against fake printing supplies. It also co-operates closely with local and global law enforcement to detect and dismantle illegal operations that produce counterfeit HP printing components.”