Chinese group behind fake Dyson hairdryers shut down by Shanghai police

A group that mass produced fake versions of products from the British brand Dyson has been arrested by the police of Shanghai recently.

36 suspects were arrested, and nearly 2,000 products and 200,000 components and parts were collected.

These fake products, which looked almost identical to the real thing, were usually sold on e-commerce platforms and priced 50% to 90% of the market price of the real Dyson hairdryer, which is nearly 3,000 yuan (440 U.S. dollars).

With the cost price of only 120 yuan (17 U.S. dollars), they were sold with labels of “discounts”, “shopping agent purchases” or “European version”. In 2018 alone, the group made more than 10 million yuan (1.46 million U.S. dollars) from the sale of these counterfeit goods.

Having received reports of the fake Dyson products being sold in August 2018, Shanghai police then traced down to the whole chain from purchasing to production, storage and then retail.

To cover their activities, the group founded a company of trade in South China’s Guangdong Province in early 2018. They bought real Dyson products and dissected them into parts, and then created their production line. These fake products were found to be not only harmful to hair, but were also a serious fire risk.

According to the Shanghai-based news outlet ThePaper.cn, the police have strengthened their measures related to intellectual property violations and solved over 500 related cases last year.