At first I didn’t believe it but got confirmation from a friend in France that this law is in fact, real!
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At first I didn’t believe it but got confirmation from a friend in France that this law is in fact, real!
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How could they prove you hadn't been conned yourself? Seems unfair to fine/ convict a potential victim
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Does this mean eBay.fr isn’t awash with fakes like in UK?
LVMH will be pleased...
Potentially a very Big fine for wearing a fake Lacoste polo bought as a gift
I guess they have decided to come at it from the other end...”if you can’t stop the producer (China mainly) ...stop the buyer (demand)...
I wonder how many fake LV bags there are in Paris v the real thing ? Or Subs in Essex ?
Is it telling its in English assume its located at Airport etc ?
Last edited by TKH; 15th September 2020 at 11:40.
Can’t be true, surely members of the EU are ‘ruled by Brussels’ and can’t have their own laws. ( sorry, political, please ignore)
Cheers..
Jase
Extraordinary.
That is quite something. Difficult to enforce though surely? “Excuse me sir, can you come this way so we can examine your watch...?”
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I am confused. At what point would the reality of the watch on your wrist be questioned? If you get stopped for speeding, would the officer also ask you to prove that your Cartier is not a fake?
I can understand it if you're caught buying a £200 rolex or cartier for example but I'd be a little pissed if I'd payed full wack and then get done because it's fake.
I guess the paperwork for the sale might be evidence that you didn't know.
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Maybe your transaction on Paypal showing payment to “wemakefakerolex”
Seriously though this campaign by France is simply to try to make a good number of fake purchasers think twice before doing so. It would be a nightmare to try to police but if it stops some buyers in their tracks then all well and good.
Last edited by RustyBin5; 15th September 2020 at 11:58.
Last edited by Ctam; 15th September 2020 at 12:01.
I’m not sure what the law is in the UK but you can buy all kinds of counterfeit goods (including watches) on Gumtree. Listings get taken down but re-emerge from the same sellers.
This is old news, the law has existed for at least 10 years. It's a testament to the lobbying power of French luxury groups and their importance to the French economy.
As for policing it, I'd say it presents the same problems as British Customs face dealing with people arriving with a couple of bottles of booze or a few cartons of cheap fags buried under the dirty shreddies in their suitcases as they waltz through the green channel or, indeed, people who buy a genuine watch abroad (Switzerland, for example) and wear it home, not paying the VAT on arrival in the UK.
I can't find any stats as to how many prosecutions have been made under this law. Would be interesting to find out.
They should do this everywhere. Stamp out the fakes.
I imagine this must be the case, most laws are designed to influence the (fairly) law abiding majority and allow serous cases to be prosecuted. It wouldn't be practical to enforce / police anything but the most serious laws to the complete extent of the letter of the law.
R
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Do people really pay £200 for a fake Rolex in a market?
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
There are 2 aspects to this.
The first one is awareness. Think of it as in the same spirit as the US questionnaire where you are ask if you belong to a terrorist organisation, or if you plan to kill POTUS; no one in their right mind will answer yes, but if they do anything that can be construed as an attempt they can get done at least for perjury. In this case, make sure that people understand that it is illegal and repression is enforced. You don't usually find these posters at your AD's, but it's likely you'll see them as you fly to Turkey or SE Asia: "Un homme averti en vaut 2!"
The other gives customs (who already have greater investigative powers than the police*) a known motive to intercept people, even if it is the only thing they find initially.
As to enforcement, I would say that the majority (if anyone) will be arrested at the airport coming back from the destinations mentioned earlier.
* as a side note, French border force can stop you anywhere, not just at the border, and conduct a full search of your vehicle (and yourself) without having to show motive, although most of the times they will act on denunciation, usually by the people who sold you the fake goods via their country's own border force.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Cheers,
Neil.
I’m sure there was a relatively famous sportsman who’s wife had a fake bag got fined in France about ten years ago.
Is there a reason they are in English?
My understanding is that its illegal to sell a fake (probably more due to misuse of trademarks / abuse of copyright etc rather than a specific law), but not illegal to own.
I understand that Switzerland has even tougher laws against the possession of fakes, but they would, wouldn't they!
Do Humbert & Ellis Ltd have an office in France or Italy?
Asking for a friend.
I got caught out earlier this year with a fake Cartier Santos WSSA0013 bought off eBay. Watch looked spot on. Brushed finishing was exemplary. Didn’t think the fakers could replicate the SmartLink adjustment system as they do... could barely see the link ‘buttons’ to eject the pins, the machining tolerances were that good and the QuickSwitch mechanism worked perfectly. My suspicions were only aroused through less than stellar timekeeping, but that made me look much more closely. Date wheel font not quite right, box packaging very slightly iffy, but it took me a full 4 months to find the courage to take the back off and prove it once and for all. Movement was a dressed up 9015.
Luckily I paid via PayPal and made use of their 180 day refund policy. They were really excellent at getting me all of my +£4K back, so can’t complain on that count, but was less than impressed that they seemed less bothered that some guy had sold me a dud. I wanted to get the police involved, but they just wanted me to return the watch to the seller and I didn’t want to complicate things and risk not getting my money back somehow. Feel bad that he may try and dupe someone else with it.
Be vigilant people!
Gary
Fakes are just to damn realistic these days. I never buy expensive watches outside of the AD for this reason, as I'm not confident enough in my own ability to spot a so called 'super' fake. I keep the 2nd hand stuff to sub £1k watches.
People often say 'buy the seller', but that only works if the seller knows what they have is a dud. I can't help but wonder how many people have fakes in their watch box with no clue, and how many of them may therefore unknowingly sell on a fake without ever even realising!
Agree with this. Unenforceable but for the sake of printing a few posters, they might scare a few people off from buying counterfeit goods.
Counterfeit goods hold no interest to me mainly because I'd rather spend my money on a genuine brand at any price point rather than a counterfeit of dubious quality. I've seen colleagues bring back £100 fakes from holidays and always thought it was dumb when £100 could buy you a good Seiko. The people who spend hundreds on those "high quality" near identical fakes are insane.
The same goes for movies...I've never downloaded any movies from the internet, partly on moral grounds. Yet when I suggested to a friend that I am happy to buy DVDs from CEX or Music Magpie, he suggested that none of that money goes to the film industry or people who made the film so morally how can it be any different.
I've just googled this and never knew there was a u-turn in the law and that it was illegal. Thats a real scam by the music and film industry to squeeze every last penny out of consumers. Buy a CD or DVD, then years later have to pay full price again if you want it digitally! The cost of the older digital movies are a total rip off...buy the DVD for a couple of quid or the download for seven or eight quid!
Again, utterly unenforceable for music...you only have to look at Youtube Music to see that a lot of copyrighted music is uploaded by users for anyone to listen to.
They have no chance of enforcing it systematically. But they do seize quite a lot of fakes on passengers at airports, and the fines can be severe. As I said earlier it works like the drug market: Seller of illegal fakes (drugs) is tolerated because he brings money in the economy, but is kept under a tight leash by local border force. The deal is, when he sells to a tourist he needs to tell local BF.
In the case of drugs, they arrest tourist offender on departure.; in the case of fakes they notify their counterparts in the tourist's homeland.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Surely the French would just wave a white flag and hand over their Submariner, it's just their way....
The current drink and driving laws were introduced in 1967 as a necessary safety measure. During the 1970s, a lot of men (never women) boasted of being convicted and in the main they received a lot of sympathy and the general opinion was that these new laws were draconian and decent citizens were being penalised for losing their license and/or job for a minor infringement of the law.
Fast forward up until today and the attitude is now, quite rightly, different. Drunken driving is now a major taboo and offenders can expect to be disrespected by family, friends and work colleagues for committing a thoroughly disgusting crime. The public attitude has swung 180 degrees and that is how it should be.
The same needs to apply to counterfeiting of any type. The makers employ vulnerable people, often children, working under inhumane conditions. We would not treat a dog like these people are treated. The profits are undeclared and often fund crime and money laundering.
The people who buy these counterfeits, be it a watch or a pair of jeans, are keeping these industries going and we need to change our attitude to it and fast. Anyone who buys a counterfeit are supporting crime and exploitation and they deserve to be treated the same as drunken drivers.
There is no justifiable reason for anyone to buy a fake and it is only a lack of international cooperation and public attitude that keeps the industry going.
If we don't buy, the industry will die, so the ball is in our court.