(7/22/2012)
Officers from the criminal division of the Bali Police have conducted raids on area shops and confiscated thousands of counterfeit branded items.
The raids, carried out on shops in Denpasar and Kuta, saw “fake” watches, belts, hats, bags and spare parts for automobiles seized as evidence.
Among the falsified brands netted in the raids were Billabong, Ripcurl, Paul Smith and Toyota.
Bisnis Indonesia quotes Arif Sugiarto of the Bali police, saying: “each of the brand owners had made complaints via their lawyers that were acted upon by seizing thousands of counterfeit items that are estimated to have caused hundreds of millions of rupiah in losses to the brand owners."
Police also temporarily held 24 store owners considered to have been selling the “fake” merchandise. If convicted, the store owners can be each fined up to Rp. 200 million (US$21,500) and sent to prison for up to one year.
Police are not releasing the names of the storeowners who are not being held prior to trial.
Police believe there are still many shops selling “fake” merchandise in Bali and the police are encouraging the owners of registered brands to file official complaints that will allow the police to take action.
The brand owners claim that the falsified merchandise costs sales and damages their brand’s reputation due to the inferior quality of the falsified merchandise.
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