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MOTORINDIA
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July 2012
How to combat widespread
auto parts counterfeiting
In 1872, inventor Elijah McCoy
(Figure 1) patented a lubricating sys-
tem designed to prevent overheating
and seizing on steam engines. His
lubricants worked extremely well,
saving the shipping lines and rail-
roads lots of money. The success
and popularity of McCoy’s device
soon brought many copies, which
cost far less but didn’t work nearly
as well. These fakes created costly
problems for purchasers, who be-
lieved they were saving the money.
Those who wanted to use a genu-
ine product to ensure quality and
dependability asked for McCoy’s
product by name. Thus was born the
phrase “the Real McCoy.” The story
that started in 1872 still exists today
in a much bigger form of automotive
piracy. The automobile sector across
the globe is currently under grave
attack from the counterfeit market.
According to a survey conducted
by the Motor and Equipment Manu-
facturers Association (MEMA), the
global automotive industry loses
$12 billion to counterfeiting.
The Indian scene
The automotive components
sector in India has grown rap-
idly in the last decade and was
estimated at INR 990 billion
($22 billion) in FY10. While
there has been an increase in
genuine market, the counterfeit mar-
ket also grows parallel. In India it
was started in 1980s when counter-
feiting became first visible threat to
automotive component businesses.
As a result of sophisticated global
economy, coupled with easy access
to technological advances, very few
product lines are able to escape the
reach of counterfeiters.
In the automotive components
sector, various auto components in
the aftermarket are counterfeited on
a massive scale. Products such as
filters, spark plugs and brake pads,
bearings, piston and piston rings,
etc., tend to be more prone to coun-
terfeiting than others (see Table 1).
In India, the problem is acute be-
cause of various factors such as:
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The growing illegal manufactur-
ing due to shortcoming of existing
legislation and easy availability of
material from China to produce/
make counterfeit auto components
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Inadequate surveillance efforts by
the brand owner to identify coun-
terfeit products and to motivate/
involve sales and distribution re-
sources to stop counterfeit products
entering the supply chain from the
manufacturer to the consumer
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Tampering/re-packaging: Coun-
terfeit automotive components en-
tering the supply chain through local
manufacturing, import from China
By Pradip Shroff, President - HOMAI
Fig. 1: Elijah McCoy
focus on aftermarket