By Chris Chang, posted Sep 1, 2011 at 9:10 PM, 4,090 views,

Apple Responds to The Most Phenomenal Fake Apple Store in China

Remember the fake Apple store we tracked down in Zhongshan which almost looks like a gas station? Well, we made an exclusive visit to the store, did a comprehensive review of it, and just after 3 days we posted the story, the store removed the ‘leaf’ of the massive glowing Apple logo on the front. We checked what is going on, and here’s what we found: This particular counterfeit Apple shop is now facing legal trouble and Apple is very pissed at this counterfeit retail set-up.

We named this fake Apple store as the most phenomenal one in China. It does not look exactly like original Apple Stores, but its gorgeous glass-lined two-story building has amazed us. It consists of an Apple-inspired decor, loads of REAL Apple products, and several blue-shirted employees. Perhaps the most interesting thing in the store is that it offers jailbreaking services where customers can take their newly purchased iDevice upstairs to receive one-on-one service and support to install cracked apps. Apple hates all these things, and here’s what the public relations department of Apple China told the Chinese media Southern Metropolis Daily after reading the reports on this fake Apple store,

“We have published a list of authorized resellers on our official website, and there’s only one Authorized Reseller in Zhongshan. Sinzd (the fake Apple store) claimed to be authorized by an “International Agent” of Apple, but we never heard of any authorization from “International Agent”. Their act has violated Apple’s registered trademarks in China, we will notify the related departments of our company, and carry out investigation on this matter.”

Apple has carried out investigation on the fake Apple stores located in Kunming before we report this fake Apple store. The reporters from the Southern Metropolis Daily made a visit to the store after seeing our report. They saw the things we have seen — a massive Apple logo on the front, and a banner promoting its back-to-school deal at the front doors. There’s no “Apple Authorized Reseller” sign in the store. One of their reporters pretended to be a customer and here’s what the employee of the fake Apple store told the reporter,

“We have both Hong Kong and China licensed iPhone 4s for sale, the 16GB black model costs about 4900 yuan ($767).”

When the reporter revealed his identity, the manager of the store told the reporter,

“We only sell China-licensed iPhones.”

And when the reporter asked the manager about the internet reports regarding his store, he said:

“We can’t control people’s discussions. We would just let them talk what they would like to say. We are not directly authorized by Apple, so we are not on the list on Apple’s website. We are authorized by Apple’s International Agent in China, and we have an official certificate.”

The reporter requested to take a look on the certificate, but the manager said it’s not the right time. And here’s what we see on the next day.

Below is a closer look.

This is funny. The store removed the “leaf” of the Apple logo outside their store, and the eye-catching banner that promotes its back-to-school deal. Their action is widely discussed on Sina Weibo (China’s Twitter-like microblogging service), and we found something on the store’s Weibo account.

Yes, this fake store has a Weibo account. And the pic above shows their so-called certificate that is published on their Weibo during April this year. The certificate says a company called ECS Technology (Shanghai) Limited is Apple’s main distributor for the whole line of Apple’s hardware products. They have approved Sinzd (the fake Apple store) to be the reseller of the whole line of Apple’s hardware products in Zhongshan. The authorization is valid from April 18th 2011 to October 18th 2011.

What’s all this about? Does this mean that this fake Apple store is authorized by Apple’s main distributor in China to be the reseller for Apple’s hardware products? Well, we did a Google search on ECS Techonology, and the company is indeed a official marketing agent and distributor for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and Mac products. In order to get more info, a reporter from the Southern Metropolis Daily contacted the company, and here’s what the company replied:

“We are not able to authorize others to build Apple stores. We wrote a certificate of authorization for Sinzd to be the reseller of Apple products, but it’s not for opening a store.”

The reporter then asked Sinzd about the authorization, and they said they have another certificate of authorization from China Unicom. So, the reporter contacted China Unicom regarding to this matter, and here’s what China Unicom replied,

“We approved Sinzd to sell Apple’s iPhone, but we did not authorize them to open an Apple store. Only Apple has the capability to authorize that.”

So, both ECS Technology and China Unicom did not authorize Sinzd to open a store to sell Apple products. After the reporters of Southern Metropolis Daily found out the truth, Sinzd has to remove the “leaf” of the Apple logo to prevent facing legal troubles. And here’s what the manager of the fake Apple store said to the Chinese media,

“We used the Apple logo to let the store look better, and yes, maybe the logo is a bit over-sized. However, you can’t say that we are a “Shanzhai store” for using the Apple logo. We are not even selling Shanzhai products.”

Wrap-up

Ok, it’s pretty sad to see the fake Apple store being forced to modify their iconic Apple logo to prevent facing legal troubles. But who cares? We think the act of removing the “leaf” from the Apple logo is a “rude manner”. We do not want to see our favorite Apple logo getting modified, and being treated as a marketing tool to draw more attention to one’s business. Fake Apple stores are evil, they sell the Apple products at a higher price to customers, and offer jailbreaking service to install cracked apps. We think Apple should investigate the supply channels used by these fake Apple stores, as we are pretty sure that most of their stocks (the iPhones and iPads) come from the grey market. Most importantly, we wish Apple could figure out a way to shut down these fake Apple stores, since these stores will greatly affect the company’s future plans of opening retail stores across China. At the meantime, there are four authentic Apple stores in China, two in Beijing, and two in Shanghai.

Source: Southern Metropolis Daily (1), (2)