The Fair Competition Commission (FCC) incinerated cartridges and mobile phones seized in counterfeit raids.
Frank Mdimi, Communications and Public Relations Officer for Tanzania’s Fair Competition Commission (FCC)
Daily News reported on the incineration of the counterfeit HP toner cartridges and Samsung mobile phones by the FCC, which were seized from Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam regions in the country, and which were said to be worth around 230 million shillings ($124,503/€114,408).
According to the FCC’s Communications and Public Relations Officer, Frank Mdimi, the products were “impounded between late last year and early this year”, and he added that the products “were already in the market” when seized, with incineration taking place at the Mkuranga-based Safe Waste Incinerator in the presence of the press.
Mdimi stated that the products included 4,150 mobile phones worth 207.5 million shillings ($112,323/€103,216) and 292 toner cartridges worth 23.3 million shillings ($12,612/€11,590), with the mobile phones impounded in Dar es Salaam’s biggest market, Kariakoo, and he commented that Samsung’s Tanzanian agent “denied manufacturing such fake mobile phones”.
A representative from Samsung, alongside law enforcement agencies, was present at the incineration, and Mdimi “called upon the general public to refrain from purchasing fake products”, adding that this was because of their “side effects which touch both the government and consumers”. Most counterfeits are said to enter the market “through illegal routes”, and so it is the “public’s role to tip off relevant authorities and ensure they are removed”, he commented.
The FCC is “regularly” carrying out inspections with both the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) and the Bureaus of Standards (TBS) to “make the country free from substandard goods”, and had “impounded and destroyed” counterfeit products worth 4.2 billion shillings ($/€) in 2014 alone. Mdimi concluded that “the most appropriate way to end counterfeit products which are now flooding Tanzanian markets is ignoring them. If they lack market, then it is obvious that such illegal dealing will undergo a natural death”.