A number of automakers are facing chip and part shortages, but the market for counterfeit components is booming.
According to Daimler’s head of Legal Product Intellectual Property, Florian Adt, over 1.7 million counterfeit products were confiscated in 2020 and the company supported or initiated more than 550 raids. That’s a slight increase from 2019, which is somewhat surprising as the automaker noted numerous raids had to be postponed as many courts were temporarily closed.
Given the coronavirus pandemic, the online trade of counterfeit parts increased significantly. The company was keenly aware of this and was able to get 138,000 counterfeit products removed from online platforms. Adt noted this was nearly three times as many removals as before the pandemic.
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Top car equipped with counterfeit brake pads
While there are undoubtedly more counterfeit items out there, Daimler was mainly focused on safety-related products such as brake discs and wheels. These components may look legitimate, but they’re often low quality knockoffs that “do not meet even minimum legal standards.”
The company tested a few of the fake items and found counterfeit brake pads had “significantly longer” stopping distances as well as extensive wear after a stress test. Daimler also released a picture of a counterfeit AMG wheel, which had two spokes that cracked during testing.
While the dangers of counterfeit parts are obvious, they’re appealing to criminals as the Unifab trade association has noted fake parts often have higher margins than drugs. Of course, the best way to avoid them is using common sense and buying parts from dealers or reputable companies. You should also be wary of prices that seem to good to be true and be aware that just because something is listed on Amazon, doesn’t mean it’s actually being sold by Amazon.
Counterfeit brake pad (left) vs OEM brake pad following stress test
