In the year 2018, the Chinese police sniffed the unethical production of counterfeit Lego products in the Chinese toy market. With that clue, they have uncovered a gang in Shanghai for selling and manufacturing of counterfeit Legos worth of 30 million dollars.
According to the police, they raided the factories that were claimed to produce colorful toy blocks and miniature figures just like the European toy-maker Lego. From this place, the police dismantled more than 630,000 products. This includes the very popular edition of Star Wars by Lego. After seizing all these counterfeit products, police arrested four people. You will be surprised to know that; the total cost of the completed product is more than 30 million dollars.
After the raid, the Chinese police released some pictures of the replica products and it goes without saying that, it totally resembles the toys produced by Lego, the Danish toy giant. The police notified the media that, the imitation of Star Wars set was renamed as Star Plan and it was intended to sell under the name “Lepin Bricks 2”.
All these knockoffs were sold at one-tenth of the market price of Lego. Where the price of Lego starts from 15 dollars, the fake ones start from 3 dollars only. Wondering how they could sell this at such a low price? Well, most of the Lego blocks were of very low quality and it was made from bad-quality material. As such toy blocks are generally made for the children, so low-quality material raises safety concerns. The same issue was addressed by the vice president of Lego China, Robin Smith. He said the Xinhua news agency that, the counterfeit products not only downgrade the reputation of Lego in the world but also, raise safety concerns. Xinhua also reported on the same matter that, counterfeit products pose a major risk among the users.
Lego, a Danish toy-maker company is making toys for a long time. However, recently, their business has slowed down in the U.S, and other European countries. Lego celebrated its return to the market after 13 years in 2017. This Danish toymaker company sells toy bricks of 75 billion dollars annually in over 140 countries. China is one of the five major countries that contribute to the annual profit of Lego. Hence, the counterfeit cheap product poses a major risk to annual sales, as well as the status of the company.
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