Fake Apple Stores Are All Over China
posted Thursday Aug 11, 2011 by Scott Ertz
Remember those amazingly detailed fake Apple stores that were found last month? Well, China's Administration for Industry and Commerce promised they would look into the problem and you will never believe what they found.
So far, the administration has turned up another 22 unauthorized Apple stores. Yeah, you read that right: 22 more fake stores. As of now, we are unaware of whether the stores are selling official product unofficially or knock-off products. Knock-offs are a big business in China, but it is very unusual for an organization to go to the lengths these guys have to make the stores look so real.
Based on the photos we saw last month, obviously someone has direct access to the manufacturing of at least Apple's fixtures, because the first round of fake stores even had the official Apple product displays. From the reports, these stores are no different and, despite the coverage of the first round of stores and the fact that only 4 real Apple stores exist in the country, the employees of these stores still believe they work for one of the four.
Whether or not they work for Apple or are selling official Apple product illegally, they have been ordered to remove any Apple logos from their stores. To increase the speed of discovery, the agency has also setup a complaint hotline for residents to report what they believe to be counterfeit Apple locations. China sure is a fun place.
