(March 14, 2011)
On Wednesday 16 March Trading Standards officers accompanied by SKF officials entered the premises of a non-authorised SKF bearing distributor in the UK, seizing around one tonne of counterfeit SKF bearings. The distributor has cooperated fully with the authorities, informing SKF that a further 1.5 tonne of various bearing types, purchased on the open market, are currently being shipped to them.
SKF takes counterfeiting extremely seriously as the implications can be devastating. Their unpredictable quality means that they have the potential to fail quickly, even catastrophically. The results could include expensive damage to capital equipment or serious injury to plant personnel.
Over the last few years SKF has carried out several operations of this kind in countries such as Germany, Italy, Holland, Greece, Sweden, China and the US, seizing hundreds of tonnes of counterfeit bearings and, more recently, in Spain where police authorities confiscated 15 tonnes of counterfeit bearings.
The manufacture and trade of counterfeit products is a growing global concern which increasingly affects all brands and all markets. "Together with other leading bearing manufacturers we are committed to fight both the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit products. This is beyond protecting the SKF brand. It is also about safeguarding the public from a potentially serious safety risk and from being cheated. The best way to safeguard product authenticity is sourcing SKF products through our authorised distributor network," says an SKF spokesperson.
"We are actively working at a national and global level to ensure that manufacturers and traders of counterfeit products are identified and brought to justice. In this instance, we are delighted to see that our commitment has resulted in this seizure by Trading Standards," the spokesperson concludes.
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