This Blog is a part of LTF : Legal Thirst Fashion – The launch is going to be held this week. Here is the blog on ‘How to Identify Real & Fake Fashion Products’; is written by Ipshita Goyal. She is a student of 2nd year of B.A.LL.B. (Hons.).
Online shopping has become like a ritual in our daily lives. Everyone is stick to it. From grocery to cosmetics to medicines, everything you only need is a click away. Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Grofers, AJIO are some popular shopping websites. People rely on buying their everyday essentials from these websites because they gave assurance to the customer about Quality and Quantity. Whenever there’s a season sale, we could find an unrealistic discount of 70-80% off of MRP on luxury brands, we should spot the first red flag as it’s too good to be true and consumers must be Beware at that very point!! Not only in Online Shopping but there is a flood of these Fake products in the market too, that are easily available at cheap rates. Some cosmetics and perfume brands are mostly victims of the ills of infringement. Besides cheating on you, these fake products sometimes cause severe damage to your skin.
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Tips for You 💡
Some consumers intentionally buy counterfeit products as they are cheaper and sometimes get lucky with the quality of the product or some even don’t care about the quality of the product. Some consumers who in the pretext of buying authentic or original products are scammed with counterfeit products.
There are some Influencers on social media platforms who review some well-known brands and compare real and fake products.
With the increasing profit to Sellers in the counterfeiting products industry, these have flooded the Indian streets. So, prudent consumers should be aware of distinguishing between what is real and fake. It is really difficult to distinguish real from fake. But here are some tips that should be kept in mind while buying:
Examine the quality of the product.
Generally, the quality of the counterfeited product is lower than the original product.
Be cautious of unusually low prices.
Usually, fake products are sold at low prices than the original product to attract buyers but are cautious about the unusual lower price. The low price of a product can act as an indicator. At the very spot, you should notice the red flag that is too good to be true.
Inspect the packaging of the product carefully.
The packaging of counterfeited goods or infringed goods is often deceitful and does not indicate the address of the manufacturer or the brand address. Furthermore, all famous or normal brands mark their product through a certain trademark, holograms, LOGO, and especially they contain the barcode. Through scanning of barcodes, we could get to know that whether the product that you are purchasing is a cheated product or an original one.
Check the seller’s address carefully for example refer to pic below:
The Chanel company is of Italy not of France, hence the product image on the left side is real and the one on the right side is fake.
Pic Source: Google
Check LOGO’s and Trademarks are Correct and Original.
At very first glance, the infringed product may appear identical to the genuine one. But on a near look, you may be able to identify some differences. For example, LOGO’s might be different from the original brand and maybe reproduced badly. The Trademark of the brand may be wrongly spelled or have a different look. Carefully examine the font of the brand name, its color, and spacing between the letters. There is a superscription of TM written over the brand name, if it is missing then it can be a clue for a fake product.
Medicines must be bought from a Credible or Safe Website or Shop
Some credible websites sell medicines online like NETMEDS, 1 Mg, Pharmeasy, etc. These are reputable websites and sell medicines only through a prescription and are generally trustworthy.
Check Properly the Instructions Manual.
Normally counterfeited products are from other countries too like China, Korea so checks properly that the instruction manual is in your language and contain no grammatical errors or spelling mistake.
Fake websites
A slight change in the URL of the online shopping website can land a consumer on the wrong website which will lead the consumer to think that they are purchasing from the authentic website. Recently some fake websites are having the same design, logo as major online shopping platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon.
This harm not only harm the consumers but also the economy of a country, and affect the human rights of laborers who are forced to work for these fake manufacturing companies in hazardous conditions as labor laws and human rights laws.
Some laws protect the interest of the manufacturers and sellers whose products are counterfeited, these rights are known as intellectual property rights such as the Copyright Act, Trademark Act, Designs Act, Indian Penal Code, etc.
Those consumers who are ready to buy infringed or knock-off products should bear in mind that they are indirectly supporting this crime.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views in the articles and research papers published on this website; are personal and independent opinions of the author. The website is not responsible for them.
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