Anti-Counterfeit Initiatives |
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It is difficult to estimate how many counterfeit products are in the market. The European Commission admitted that in 2006 the number of cases taken by customs involving goods infringing intellectual property rights, as well as the number of articles seized, increased dramatically. As an example, in 2006, customs intercepted more than 128 million counterfeit and pirated articles, involving 37,334 cases (Source: European Commission, Summary of Community Customs Activities on Counterfeit and Piracy, Results at the European Border – 2006). The problem of counterfeiting is more widely recognised in the luxury goods industry than in the image consumables industry.
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The Canon products that are most counterfeit are consumables (ink cartridges, laser and copier toners), batteries and battery chargers, cameras, camcorders and their related packaging and accessories.
The presence of Canon counterfeits on the market does not only have a financial impact on Canon sales, it also damages the reputation of the Canon brand as many consumers, when they buy a counterfeit product, don’t realize that the poor quality of the product is due to the fact that the product is counterfeit. "Canon is also very concerned about protecting the rights of the consumer who is the number one victim. Fake goods may sometimes seem like a bargain but there are always hidden dangers for consumers. The person who sells you a fake won't be around to help if it doesn't work properly. Only the genuine article can offer a good deal." (James Leipnik, Chief of Communication and Corporate Relations, Canon Europe).
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| Download our PDF on battery packs and chargers here. |
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| • Safety risks: Non-genuine products have not been manufactured and tested to the strict quality standards of genuine products and can cause harm to a person or product if used. Non-genuine batteries can generate excessive heat, leak or explode when used, causing serious personal injury or irreparable damage to a product. For more information on the dangers of counterfeit batteries, visit Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) website
• Quality: Non-genuine ink and toner cartridges can leak, block a printer’s print head or lead to colour blurring and streaking. These cartridges also offer significantly less print capacity than genuine products. The print capacity of counterfeit cartridges that Canon has tested range from 28% to 69% compared to genuine cartridges.
• Environmental impact: All genuine products comply with European laws such as the WEEE directive and REACH. Non-genuine products may not comply with these laws and may cause a greater risk to the environment.
• Links to organised crime: Counterfeiting has been proven to have links to funding crimes such as drug dealing, people trafficking, arms smuggling, identity theft, money laundering and terrorists activities. |
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| • Laser Cartridges: Canon Authentic Toner delivers sharp, smooth and clean printouts. Our micro toner is crucial to the printing process to ensure the highest quality output. Using advanced technology, essential elements are ground together to form superior ‘Grinded toner’. This micro toner is especially suitable for mono laser printing and copying, providing our customers with high quality print outs with a professional finish.
• Toner Cartridges: Each original toner cartridge is manufactured to the highest possible standards and rigorously tested to ensure the quality and performance our customers expect. Toner particle size, shape and color pigmentation all have a direct impact on the sharpness of the printed image. Original printer toner is formulated to meet high quality resolution, grey scale and solid fill images. Original toner is delicately balanced to provide even flow and toner distribution onto the paper.
• Inkjet Cartridges: Each original inkjet cartridge is finely balanced to ensure that both ink formulation and the timing of ink delivery prevent smearing and clogging of the printer’s print head. |
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| Find a list of authorised retailers of Canon products on our Where to buy page |
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• Appearance: Canon logos on packaging and products may be blurred and in the wrong colour, font or size.
• Check if the packaging has been resealed, reused or tampered with in any way.
• Check for spelling errors on the packaging and product.
• Check if the country of origin is missing.
• Price: Be cautious of sellers with unusually low prices.
• Place of purchase: Caution should be taken when purchasing from internet auction websites. Not all products purchased from these sites are counterfeit; however counterfeiters use these sites for speed, anonymity and global reach.
• Hologram: A unique Canon hologram is included on the packaging of all genuine ink cartridges, laser toners, copier toners, camera and camcorder batteries. The hologram has a unique colour-changing feature which appears as an iridescent gold when viewed from the front, but changes to a bright iridescent green when tilted horizontally. If the hologram is counterfeit, this colour change does not occur or the change is slight. |
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| It is difficult to identify counterfeit products in the market because the packaging for the counterfeit products often looks the same as the packaging for the genuine products. Therefore, consumers are often unable to distinguish between genuine products and counterfeit products.
Canon has incorporated special technology measures such as Canon Unique Hologram which is affixed on the packaging of most Canon ink cartridges, laser toners, copier toners camera and video batteries. Using Canon Unique Hologram makes identification of counterfeit packaging easier. It has a unique colour-changing feature. Front on, it appears as an iridescent gold, but when tilted into horizontal position, the gold colour changes to a bright, iridescent green. If this colour change does not occur or the colour change is only slight, the hologram is fake. Other indicators of counterfeit include:
• Unusually low prices
• The colour and materials used in the packaging differ from the genuine Canon packaging
• The materials used in the manufacture of products are of a poor quality
• The manner in which the products are sold can differ from the manner of normal business and consumer transactions
• Spelling mistakes on the packaging or the product
• Canon Unique Hologram can’t be peeled off without damaging the packaging and/or the hologram itself.
Canon has its own experts, who are specially trained in identifying counterfeit products. |
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| • Activities: The Canon name and logo is officially registered as trademarks and with customs offices in more that 30 countries around EMEA to allow formal surveillance of suspected counterfeited products.
• Technologies: Canon has implemented security measures to help customers identify genuine products.
• Co-operation with authorities and international organisations such as customs and Trading Standards.
• Lobbying: To the European Community and participating in public consultations on intellectual property enforcement. • Membership to various organisations such as the Anti-Counterfeit Group, ICCE, SNB and with eBay’s VeRO programme.
• Education: Training and educating police, customs, governmental authorities in identifying counterfeit. Canon has also created and distributed a handy viewer to make it easier for authorities to detect counterfeit products. |
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| • Canon has seized counterfeit products in many countries across the EMEA, with the assistance of governmental authorities.
• Canon has carried out [ ] raids and seized [ ] fake products between 2007 and 2010. |
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| Canon is taking the following steps to ensure the products purchased by consumers are genuine Canon products:
• Implementing technological measures into the packaging of products which will help identify whether products are genuine or counterfeit (e.g. Canon’s Unique Hologram)
• Officially registering the Canon brand with the customs offices in more than 30 countries around EMEA to allow the formal surveillance of suspect Canon goods in most of the EMEA borders
• Joining organisations such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) (http://www.a-cg.com/), ICCE (http://www.icce.net/) and SNB – React (http://www.snbreact.org/) which have as their mission the prevention of counterfeit
• Training police, customs and other governmental authorities to identify counterfeit
• Educating the public and traders about the risks of purchasing counterfeit products |
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| With the assistance of governmental authorities, Canon has seized counterfeit products in many countries throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. The number of customs notifications and raids is systematically growing every year as Canon is becoming more successful in tackling the counterfeits and protecting the consumers. Between 2003 and 2006 the total number for customs notifications and investigation raids amounted to 1602 worldwide. Only in 2006 there were 422 cases in which Canon products were seized. And in 2007, 90 customs notifications and 122 investigation raids took place across EMEA region and were managed by Canon Europe. |
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