22 Additional Fake Apple Stores Found in China
Apple products are a hit in China; everybody wants them. At the same time, this craze has induced many fake Apple stores to sprout across several cities in the red-flagged country.
Twenty-two more unauthorized Apple retailers were identified in Kunming, a city in the southwest region of China, according to Reuters.
Last month, a blogger, BirdAbroad, posted a blog with pictures of a fake Apple store she had spotted in the same city. News broke out and since then the media as well as authorities have been on the look-out monitoring similar situations in China, a country many consider to be the world's capital for fake goods.
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As for the 22 fake Apple stores, Chinese authorities found that the stores were illegally using Apple's brand and logo and ordered them to stop using it on buildings and T-shirts by August 10. Whether these stores were found selling smuggled or knock-off Apple products, Chinese news agencies weren't clear if such sales existed across these unauthorized stores, Reuters reported.
Currently, there are only four authorized Apple retailers in China, two in Shanghai and two in Beijing. But it is believed that the country is full of innumerable unauthorized Apple product resellers that smuggle products to China in order to evade taxes.
Not only is Apple a victim of such practices, but several media outlets have reported stories of similar store incidents with other western brands including Disney, IKEA, Subway stores not to mention the plethora of knock-off luxury clothing brands and goods the country produces in piles.
China has long been pressured by the U.S. to approach such illegal activities with more stringent measures. According to several media outlets, however, many fake Apple stores were shut down not from infringing on trademark or brand rights but from not possessing legal documents to sell.
