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Fake Apple Watches unlikely to come to SA

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 12 Mar 2015
Fake Apple watches were featured today as "hot sale items" on Taobao.com
Fake Apple watches were featured today as "hot sale items" on Taobao.com

There is no date yet set for when the Apple Watch will be released in SA, but you could order a fake one for $43.99 (R536) from China's largest e-commerce site.

According to MarketWatch, knock-offs are already available on Alibaba Group's Taobao.com, with some of the fakes being featured as "hot items on sale" this morning. Some of the watches even claim to have some functions not offered on the actual Apple Watch, such as compatibility with the Android operating system and a longer battery life.

MD of World Wide Worx, Arthur Goldstuck says it is inevitable here will be counterfeit Apple products produced every time a technology product with high market value comes out. "There are tech companies in China that specialise in copying the new technology as it is released. It would have surprised me if it didn't."

However, he explained that SA has very strict and very active anti-counterfeit laws, "so we won't see many coming to SA". Goldstuck notes that fake devices it may be a problem for other African countries though.

In 2012, the South African Police Service confiscated more than R2.5 million worth of counterfeit cellphones at ports of entry into SA, within a three-month period.

In 2013, the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition ("IACC") and Taobao.com signed an agreement to address the sales of counterfeit goods online. Despite this, the site has continued to offer counterfeit products.

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