HP has emphasised its increasing success against the significant threat of counterfeit printing supplies in Africa, stressing the importance of striking back at the organised criminal networks behind this illegal activity.
“There is no shortage of unscrupulous thieves who want to defraud unsuspecting customers,” said Amir Hassan, Imaging and Printing group manager for Africa. During a gathering in Luanda of major regional partners. “HP is working hard to protect its customers in Angola and throughout Africa to ensure they receive the high quality printing experience they’re expecting and deserve.”
HP has long-since co-operated closely with African authorities to jointly protect unwitting customers and honest businesses in the region from counterfeit products. Over the last five years, HP helped seize more than 700,000 counterfeit printing supplies and components in the region as well as further packaging material and machines for assembling fake printing supplies.
Through its Anti-counterfeiting Programme, HP actively educates its customers and partners to be vigilant against fake printing supplies. It also supports local law enforcement authorities to help dismantle illegal operations that manufacture counterfeit printing supplies for HP printers globally.
In the region covering Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Africa, from the end of 2008 through September 2010, HP helped authorities seize around 5.1 million finished counterfeits and components. In HP’s fiscal year 2009 alone, the number of illicit items seized represented more than twice the amount confiscated in the previous year.
Globally, over the last four years, HP conducted 4,723 investigations in 88 countries resulting in 3,733 enforcement actions (raids and seizures by authorities) confiscating over 47.23 million units of counterfeit products and components. Investigations and actions have occurred on every continent except Antarctica.
According to the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), the estimated market for counterfeit merchandise is $750 billion globally. The Imaging Consumables Coalition of Europe, Middle East and Africa (ICCE) indicates that there’s an eight percent counterfeit rate in the nearly €30 billion market for printing consumables in Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA).
