Apple Files $2M+ Lawsuit Against Counterfeiter, Finds 90% of 'Genuine' Accessories on Amazon Are Knockoffs

[5105973]

Don't know what you're doing with your cables but I've had mine last for ages.

Mine had been treated very carefullly, nevertheless several of the chargers belonging to my family are showing what I would consider premature wear and tear. (Meaning they are within two years old, most of them current, left in the same place and only used to charge devices in place without any other simultaneous use. I supervise the charging myself to ensure the kids do not pull on the cords inappropriately and I am also speaking of the charging cords to my own devices, that I oversee exclusively. So there is some merit to the complaints about Apple's own products.) In my humble opinion.

However, these ripoffs are another animal entirely and I applaud any efforts to get them out of circulation. I say this as a former Note 7 owner. Apple does not need its reputation needlessly tarnished by the failings of ripoff products.

 

[sportsfan]

wow that was fast!!

I've learned to just hold my nose and buy apple related items from Apple.com or the apple store.
[doublepost=1476897351][/doublepost]

Yeah, it's getting really bad.

I agree. I'm starting to avoid Amazon. Batteries, accessories, even clothing. It's getting to be a flea market.

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

I'm all up for this! Give 'me hell.

My story isn't about the chargers or the cables, but EarPods!
They're almost indistinguishable from the real deal, except when you listen to it and the fact that one side of them fails in just a few weeks.

 

[nooaah]

I had a cable catch fire in my car this summer. It was an original iPhone lightning cable but the charger was bought from Amazon and advertised as genuine. What a cesspool.

 

[NT1440]

I agree. I'm starting to avoid Amazon. Batteries, accessories, even clothing. It's getting to be a flea market.

I bought a workbench from them a couple of weeks ago. Re-arranged my entire weekend schedule to be able to pick it up from my parents house.

Got the package from their house, look at it as I'm loading it into the car.

They sent me a sink. A kitchen sink.

 

[AgentAnonymous]

I think it's awesome that Apple is spending the time and money to protect users from faulty third-party products. They're not required to do so even though it's a good idea to protect the ecosystem.

Apple fanboys (no offense) are really naive sometimes. The majority of this thread is extremely naive. They're not "spending time and money" for your sake, and also definitely not to "protect users" or "the ecosystem".

What they're doing is stomping down on competition so that everyone has to buy things directly from Apple at ridiculous Apple prices. Apple's actions are always profit motivated. They wouldn't care if you died tomorrow. There's nothing humanitarian about their efforts. Why buy headphones from a 3rd party when you can get them at Apple for the low price of 49.99? That's all they want.

 

[5105973]

???

Are you hearing yourself. Amazon absolutely should, verify its website is making true claims. Yes. Not only is it the right thing to do, it's the law.

I agree. Amazon makes a lot of money based on the faith consumers place on their own "fulfilled by Amazon" offerings. Especially in the wake of "free for review purposes" ratings. Amazon needs to take steps to reclaim its credibility.

 

[aimbdd]

When's Apple going to sue themselves for their poorly made cables? I haven't had a single iOS device cable last more then a year.

I don't know what your doing to your cables, but I'm still using the lightning cable from when they first came out in my car.

Apple fanboys (no offense) are really naive sometimes. The majority of this thread is extremely naive. They're not "spending time and money" for your sake, and also definitely not to "protect users" or "the ecosystem".

What they're doing is stomping down on competition so that everyone has to buy things directly from Apple at ridiculous Apple prices. Apple's actions are always profit motivated. They wouldn't care if you died tomorrow. There's nothing humanitarian about their efforts. Why buy headphones from a 3rd party when you can get them at Apple for the low price of 49.99? That's all they want.

Did you even bother to read the story, at all? It has nothing to do with the competition. These were supposed to be original oem cables and chargers, and they were definitely not. There is plenty of companies that make cables, and apple doesn't go after them.

 

[2457282]

When's Apple going to sue themselves for their poorly made cables? I haven't had a single iOS device cable last more then a year.

And with all the apple products I have that come with cables I have a gaggle of cables from Apple. None of them have failed. I have 30pin cables from the iphone 3 that are still in perfect condition. Keep trying to give them away. I don't mean to insult you, but I find the cables from apple are fine, just not unbreakable, so if you are careful not to run over them with your chair or let the dog chew on it, etc, it will last a very long time.

 

[avanpelt]

Again ... the problem isn't third-party accessories being counterfeit. It's that products being labeled as officially from Apple are counterfeit. I don't think you read the article.

No, I did read the article. I don't think you read what I wrote.

I said I don't buy Lightning cables from Amazon that are labeled as genuine/OEM Apple cables. Period. End of story. The reason I don't buy them (aside from the mediocre reviews on most of them) is that many of the listings look sketchy to the point that I didn't believe that the products being marketed as genuine/OEM were actually genuine Apple products.

I understand that the problem has nothing to do with Anker or any other third-party manufacturer's products being counterfeit. I was just mentioning that I buy Anker products on Amazon and I steer clear of the B.S. that is, as we know for sure now, falsely labeled as "genuine/OEM" Apple chargers, cables, etc.

 

[NT1440]

Apple fanboys (no offense) are really naive sometimes. The majority of this thread is extremely naive. They're not "spending time and money" for your sake, and also definitely not to "protect users" or "the ecosystem".

What they're doing is stomping down on competition so that everyone has to buy things directly from Apple at ridiculous Apple prices. Apple's actions are always profit motivated. They wouldn't care if you died tomorrow.

Agreed on the underlined.

That aside, have you ever actually seen a teardown of knockoff chargers? Not only are they cheaply made, but often are downright dangerous for both your computer and being a fire hazard. I don't know how "competition" that doesn't adhere to basic fire safety standards is competition at all.

 

[shareef777]

I don't know what your doing to your cables, but I'm still using the lightning cable from when they first came out in my car.

I use mine through out the day. Especially when I go to the office and I plug in/out when I go between meetings and my desk. They're just not designed to handle constant use. They're great if all you do is plug it in and lay your device down. Not so much when you plug in/out multiple times a day, and especially not if you plug in and continue to hold the device as the constant bending/twisting of the connector while you're using the device causes it to fray.

 

[theluggage]

with the volume of sellers and resellers that Amazon has that would be incredibly burdensome for them to police.

...and that's Amazon's problem to solve. If they want the huge turnover that comes from being everybody's one-stop internet shopping destination, they need to invest the cash to do due diligence on their sellers. Or, perhaps they should stick to being a well-respected online "department store" and not try to compete with eBay...

 

[BootsWalking]

Apple fanboys (no offense) are really naive sometimes. The majority of this thread is extremely naive. They're not "spending time and money" for your sake, and also definitely not to "protect users" or "the ecosystem".

What they're doing is stomping down on competition so that everyone has to buy things directly from Apple at ridiculous Apple prices. Apple's actions are always profit motivated. They wouldn't care if you died tomorrow. There's nothing humanitarian about their efforts. Why buy headphones from a 3rd party when you can get them at Apple for the low price of 49.99? That's all they want.

This is the only site where I can be accused of being an Apple fanboy one day and an Android fanboy the next. I suggest looking at my profile and reading my posts if you think I'm an Apple fanboy. Here's the link to get you started:

https://forums.macrumors.com/members/bootswalking.874699/

 

[2457282]

I agree. Amazon makes a lot of money based on the faith consumers place on their own "fulfilled by Amazon" offerings. Especially in the wake of "free for review purposes" ratings. Amazon needs to take steps to reclaim its credibility.

I totally agree, except for one small detail. Amazon tends to lose more money than it makes.

 

[modeyabsolom]

I would expect something like this from eBay but surprised Amazon would allow it. I ordered Philips Fidelio M1 headphones new on eBay a while back after reading rave reviews about them in the HiFi press. Finally received them and within a couple of months of very mild use the leatherette covering on the left on-ear piece fell apart and detached from it...I wonder if they were fake too? I also ordered an HRT microStreamer external DAC on eBay new to make better use of my high-res audio files downloaded from HDTracks using higher quality B&W P7 headphones for the listening, which I did buy from a reputable shop and noticed no improvement in sound quality over what you get from the standard rMBP headphone socket. I wonder if that was fake too? Or I'm just not the owner of 'golden' ears

 

[44267547]

Good, keep going after these dirt bags.

Always buy directly from Apple

Agreed. Customers try and save money by purchasing through third party vendors, not realizing these are not Apple certified. Even though Apple charges a premium for their hardware accessories, it's better to spend the extra money and purchase OEM.

 

[CarlJ]

Don't know what you're doing with your cables but I've had mine last for ages.

This ^^^. I have a bunch of Apple cables, some Anker cables, and a handful of others. I think I've had maybe one Apple cable go bad in 15 years. Note that I use them for transferring data and powering my Apple devices - I don't use them as jump ropes or for hogtying cattle or for rock climbing.

Strain relief trouble on pre-MagSafe laptop charging cables? Yeah, I've seen those problems (didn't have any such problems personally, except for the Powerbook that got yanked off a coffee table by the cable and landed on the plug - they don't work so well with an added 45° angle), but no problems with Apple-supplied cables for iOS devices.

 

[ActionableMango]

Spending £800 on an iPhone and then cheaping out on a counterfeit charger.
Where's the logic?

I assume the buyer doesn't know it's counterfeit, and is just getting a good deal or buying during a great sale, which are both things that happen. This is the entire goal of the counterfeiter.

I know enough to stay away from weird third parties, and I also know that "fulfilled by Amazon" only means that the third party is renting Amazon warehouse space but the product is still sold from and sourced by the third party.

However, the screen shots say "shipped from and sold by Amazon.com", which would seem trustworthy to me.

 

[BeanieMan]

Indeed, I don't trust amazon at all for purchasing apple accessories. Seems like a problem that Amazon itself should also like fixed.

 

[winston1236]

How exactly is it that the Silk Road was held responsible for all the drugs being sold on its platform (illegally), yet Amazon is somehow not responsible for all of the counterfeit (illegal) products in it's platform?

 

[CarlJ]

Agreed. Customers try and save money by purchasing through third party vendors, not realizing these are not Apple certified. Even though Apple charges a premium for their hardware accessories, it's better to spend the extra money and purchase OEM.

Maybe that explains some of the complaints people have against "Apple" cables. If an Amazon 3rd-party seller (or anyone else) was listing "Real Genuine Apple Cables" for less that half of what Apple sells them for, I wouldn't think "ooh, a bargain", I'd think, "hmm, why would Apple give this company such a great deal, good possibility they're fake, best to look elsewhere". Caveat emptor.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Oh boo-hoo. Their 3P sales have become a cesspool to say the least.

They have a filter on the left where you can specify Amazon as the seller. My partner and I do so all the time. Easy to avoid that "cesspool" should you want to but also nice for others who want more options or lower prices to have access to third party sellers. As with everything you purchase, caveat emptor.

 

[CEmajr]

Good. It's about time. After buying a few of these "genuine" knockoffs years ago and having them fall apart in like a week, I just started buying the AmazonBasics or the actual Apple accessories.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

...and that's Amazon's problem to solve. If they want the huge turnover that comes from being everybody's one-stop internet shopping destination, they need to invest the cash to do due diligence on their sellers. Or, perhaps they should stick to being a well-respected online "department store" and not try to compete with eBay...

Context is important. The original poster was suggesting that Apple should sue Amazon over this. Whether Amazon wants to do extensive due diligence on all sellers in their marketplace to protect their brand is up to them. My response was that obligating them to do so in defense of potential litigation is overly burdensome.