Hewlett-Packard Company is starting an anti-counterfeiting program to trace, track and ultimately shut down counterfeiters and perpetrators of product fraud in the printing and imaging supplies business. Under this program, HP will join the forces of its dedicated in-house business personnel and legal team, with a global law firm, an international investigation company and law enforcement agencies. The HP anti-counterfeiting program incorporates special anti-counterfeiting reporting processes. In the UAE, HP has launched a hotline and e-mail address, which can be used by customers, channel partners or HP sales staff to alert the company’s anti-fraud team to the presence of counterfeit products. The company is planning to expand the program throughout the Middle East over the coming year. Leads reported through the anti-counterfeiting program will be followed up by a global network of anti-fraud consultants. Up to now, HP has tracked about 200 leads all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa with 85 follow-up investigations resulting in more than 30 active enforcement matters, including civil and criminal cases. As a direct consequence, more than 70,000 counterfeit products have been stopped from entering the market. These actions have led to many more investigations taking place around the world and to the closure of illegitimate businesses in the Asia Pacific region. Police actions have targeted retail shops and distributors, as well as unauthorized manufacturers. Traders often deceive HP customers and channel partners with print cartridges either packed in copies of HP original boxes or in re-used original HP boxes. These unauthorized goods may be sold by tele-marketers, who portray themselves as being HP representatives or someone selling original HP supplies. The Internet has also been used to sell non-HP products with the fraudulent intent to pass off such goods as genuine HP products. To date, counterfeiting and piracy have risen to up to 8 percent of world trade, resulting in $200-$300 billion in lost revenue, based on recent estimates from the European Union. Many of these fakes originate in Asia and increasingly in Eastern Europe. Production and distribution are a worldwide phenomenon and counterfeiters are becoming increasingly active in the Middle East.
HP backs the quality and the reliability of genuine HP printing supplies. The company has found that illegitimate print cartridges, are generally not capable of reproducing the premium print quality of HP-branded goods. Customers, thinking they have bought original HP print cartridges, may end up paying excessive prices for inferior print cartridges that may clog their printers — resulting in expensive repair costs, loss of back-up under an HP warranty and unwanted printer downtime.
