Latin America Apple vendor cracking down on counterfeits

Mercado Libre, a popular online marketplace in Latin America, plans to crack down on sales of counterfeit Apple products through its website.

Online sellers who use Mercado Libre (also known as Mercado Livre in Brazil) have begun receiving emails warning against peddling fake Apple products.

Sellers caught hawking counterfeit items, such as AirPods, will have all listings selling Apple products removed. In addition, Mercado Libre will ban that account from selling any Apple products in the future.

According to an email seen by 9to5mac, Mercado Libre will take action against a seller "if Apple confirms a report of counterfeit products," which suggests that both companies could be working together to stop sales of such items.

Apple products are routinely copied by disingenuous third-party sellers, with some of the fakes being nearly indistinguishable from the authentic products. AppleInsider recently pointed out just how close these knockoffs can get to the real thing.

It was reported that Apple had sought the removal of more than one million listings for fake Apple products in 2020. The company maintained that the safety of Apple consumers is the company's first priority and that the risks associated with knockoff accessories can be "very serious."

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3 Comments

Xed

said about 2 years ago

That's an impressive level of shadiness. Thanks for the video comparison.

iHy

said about 2 years ago

a couple of things -
the lowest price for a quite close knock-off was 15$ - the sound quality definitely was not 10x worse - just that I can hear the difference and the build quality is still good - for an item that I loose in a couple of months - it is a bargain.
still alive after 3 months of daily usage - so the cost of ownership beats anything so far I have had that satisfied my listening needs.

with the exception of the icloud switching ( switching over seemlessly from a device to a device as a source of audio - iphone to macbook to iphone ) - the sweet spot for functionally with a 95% similar feature list appears to be in the 50 to 60$ of the knock-off range.

the problem is that good knock-offs have knock-offs and counterfeits of their own :) ( deceptful slimes) - which is like with any counterfeit product - a deceit is used to get more $$ out of your pocket providing less ( less costs for the seller - higher margin).

So the real problem is the lucrative high margin target of the disposable and non-serviceable items. the free market of capitalism should be able to level it out. The fight against this is like a communist party of the worst case - "the party says that all your money belong to us"

sflocal

said about 2 years ago

iHy said:

a couple of things -
the lowest price for a quite close knock-off was 15$ - the sound quality definitely was not 10x worse - just that I can hear the difference and the build quality is still good - for an item that I loose in a couple of months - it is a bargain.
still alive after 3 months of daily usage - so the cost of ownership beats anything so far I have had that satisfied my listening needs.

with the exception of the icloud switching ( switching over seemlessly from a device to a device as a source of audio - iphone to macbook to iphone ) - the sweet spot for functionally with a 95% similar feature list appears to be in the 50 to 60$ of the knock-off range.

the problem is that good knock-offs have knock-offs and counterfeits of their own :) ( deceptful slimes) - which is like with any counterfeit product - a deceit is used to get more $$ out of your pocket providing less ( less costs for the seller - higher margin).

So the real problem is the lucrative high margin target of the disposable and non-serviceable items. the free market of capitalism should be able to level it out. The fight against this is like a communist party of the worst case - "the party says that all your money belong to us"

Nonsense. Just wait for one of these iKnockoff earbuds to catch fire in your ear, or the charging case to catch fire then I'm sure you'll change your tune.

Apple goes to through tons of R&D and safety testing to make sure their products are as safe as can be. These counterfeiters are cancers. They ride of the coattails of Apple's work and try to monetize illegally from it. That you take that price and conclude that Apple surely is ripping people off is irrelevant. People like you that defend that practice and see nothing wrong with it should be ashamed.