PCs won't load: fake Russian brand electronics have appeared on the market
Fake electronics of domestic brands have appeared on the market — sellers sell fake computers, laptops, as well as professional equipment supplied by government order. This was reported to Izvestia by employees of domestic manufacturers, as well as in specialized associations representing their interests. This is happening at a time when the popularity and demand for Russian gadgets are growing, experts say. The dangers of buying such gadgets can be found in the Izvestia article.
Which Russian electronics have been tampered with
Representatives of manufacturers and public figures told Izvestia that the products of Russian electronics brands began to be forged.
— This year we have encountered several such cases in the categories of servers, switches, and mobile devices, when unknown sellers use our brand," Fplus told Izvestia. — As a rule, these are attempts to make quick money by taking advantage of the moment and the inattention of the buyer.
According to a company representative, fake infrastructure equipment often does not perform its stated functions.
— The customer contacts us, sends us a serial number, but it does not match any of our products, — He says. — Retail products are monitored internally by the main retail sites.
According to him, the appearance of fakes indicates that Russian electronics brands have already gained some recognition, especially in the context of the dominance of electronics no name from Southeast Asia.
Fplus has not contacted law enforcement agencies yet. His representatives claim that the problem is solved by contacting trading platforms that promptly remove counterfeit goods from sale.
Another Russian electronics manufacturer, ICL, went further and went to court, accusing one of the suppliers state-ordered electronics in violation of its exclusive trademark rights, the media wrote. A completely different company supplied equipment to government agencies under its brand. Earlier it was reported that ICL filed a lawsuit in June 2024 in the amount of 1.9 million rubles and won the court. Izvestia sent a request to the company.
A source of Izvestia close to another electronics manufacturer also encountered fakes.
— Many retail goods are assembled in large Chinese factories — these contractors may not pay attention to the fact that they replicate other people's intellectual property," he said.
Indeed, Russian brands face the problem of counterfeiting, confirms a representative of the association of sellers and manufacturers of household appliances and RATEK electronics Anton Guskov. They harm Russian manufacturers both when unscrupulous stores sell directly counterfeit products under a domestic brand, and when they counterfeit a well-known international trademark, because such products compete in price not with the original, but with a more affordable Russian brand, he believes.
— That is why we propose to introduce at the legislative level a copyright holder's office on marketplaces, through which manufacturers will have a real tool to combat counterfeiting, the expert added.
The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is in close cooperation with domestic electronics manufacturers, including on the issue of identifying counterfeit products of Russian brands on the domestic market, the ministry told Izvestia. A voluntary experiment on labeling certain types of electronic products is currently underway in the Russian Federation. This is one of the key and most dynamically developing projects in the areas of trade digitalization and product turnover control, according to the department. In the case of the introduction of mandatory labeling, traceability data will be taken into account when conducting inspections and making decisions regarding unscrupulous manufacturers and suppliers, his press service noted.
How popular are Russian gadgets
According to Svetlana Legostaeva, CEO of the Computing Machinery Consortium, the problem of counterfeiting of domestic computing equipment has been fixed since 2022. First of all, this concerns personal computers, laptops, and more recently, server products, she said. According to her, under the guise of registered Russian devices , foreign technology enters the market, which negatively affects the image of domestic manufacturers.
— The spread of fakes is due to the fact that the volume of purchased domestic computing equipment has begun to seriously to grow thanks to government support measures, including preferences and restrictions in procurement activities in the regulated market segment, as well as imposed sanctions. Customers are increasingly choosing domestic solutions, which are used by unscrupulous suppliers, trying to pass off cheap and low—quality imports for Russian products, she noted.
In her opinion, the key measure in the fight against counterfeiting is the introduction of mandatory labeling, which will allow tracking the origin of products and minimize the risks of such products entering official supply channels.
Forgery of a brand usually means its recognition, noted Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research.
— Counterfeit Louis Vuitton bags, Nike or Adidas sports shoes have long been the talk of the town. The situation is similar with electronics. For a long time, the first places in terms of the number of fakes in the world were occupied by iPhone and Samsung smartphones. But closer to 2020, pirated phones of Chinese brands began to appear on the market — Huawei, Xiaomi, Realme and others, and this was due to the sharply increased quality of the original products of these brands, the expert recalled.
I would also like to see recognition of quality in the appearance of fakes of Russian electronics, from servers to mobile devices,, he noted.
— So far its main consumers are government agencies that are obliged to purchase domestic products that are listed in the relevant registers. Taking advantage of this market situation, unscrupulous assemblers began to send counterfeit products to such customers, especially in the regions: devices of brands and models that are listed in official lists, starting with the Unified Register of Russian Radio Electronic Products, Leonid Konik noted.
Counterfeit electronics of Russian brands appear against the background of the fact that the demand for domestic gadgets is growing in principle. One of the notable trends in the electronics market in 2024 can be called the increased demand for Russian brands, Izvestia was told on the M network.Video-Eldorado" and confirmed by other market players. First of all, this is noticeable in gaming accessories, such as headphones and headsets, as their sales increased by 143% in monetary terms and by 164% in quantitative terms, the united retailer noted.
Sales of domestic storage devices increased by 110% in monetary terms and by 61% in quantitative terms. Sales volumes of Russian televisions, smart speakers and many other household appliances and electronics are growing, market participants interviewed by Izvestia said.
Import substitution is underway in Russia, but it also has a downside — the appearance of counterfeit electronics, says Sergey Polovnikov, head of the Content-Review project. Buyers of such equipment can receive low-quality equipment that does not have the functions that are in the original, as well as be left without warranty, service and maintenance, he listed. In general, when buying counterfeit electronics of domestic brands, the buyer faces the same problems as when buying any other counterfeit, the expert concluded.
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