In a recent announcement, HP’s Anti-Counterfeiting and Fraud (ACF) team said that it seized 4.5 million counterfeit products between November 2019 and October 2020.
Vanguard reported that Glenn Jones, Head of HP’s Global Anti-Counterfeiting Programme, confirmed that the seizures are a result of raids across the EMEA region. The seizures resulted in taking 4.5 million items of fake printer products, parts and components and a large amount were ink and toner cartridges, the report said.
HP’s Anti-Counterfeiting and Fraud team in the EMEA region described the efforts between November 2019 and October 2020 as presenting “extraordinary challenges” due to COVID-19 with “government shutdowns, labour shortages and changes in custom control priorities” which resulted in changes in the criminal’s strategies to bring the product to market. The report by Vanguard does add that HP due to these new circumstances, has to evolve its track and trace technology to fight counterfeiters since COVID-19 has moved a lot of sales online.
There have been over 12 million counterfeits and components seized throughout the EMEA during the past years by local authorities backed by HP Inc and the OEM itself has conducted more than 4,500 “audits and inspections of partners stocks or suspicious deliveries”.
HP Inc’s ACF programme is responsible for educating its customers and partners on what to look out for in counterfeit products and works closely with local and worldwide law enforcements to find and destroy illegal operations that produce fake HP Inc printing consumables.
