Kuala Lumpur, November 27th, 2015 – OPPO Malaysia joined Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (the Ministry) in a raid for counterfeits that is exploiting the brand name of OPPO smartphones in shopping mall of two premises, Shah Alam and Seremban last Friday on 20th November 2015. The replicas of OPPO smartphone are believed to be sold at prices between RM400 to RM700 per unit compared to over RM1,000 to RM2,098 each for genuine OPPO smartphone. The raid was carried out in a shopping mall in Plaza Alam Sentral, Shah Alam and Terminal 1, Seremban. Following the raid, the Ministry has seized eight counterfeit phones of various OPPO models worth more than RM 4,200. OPPO has sent representatives to join the Ministry in the raid operation in two different premises. Head of Intellectual Property Enforcement Division of the ministry in Putrajaya, Othman Nawang said that based on several reports being made, the Ministry has gathered sufficient information and intelligence, to prove that two premises, each of which is located in a shopping center in Shah Alam and Seremban, are involved in selling counterfeits that are branded with the name of OPPO. According to Othman, the Ministry has sent out spot-check teams for the raid operation to the two locations and found out that the respective dealer stores are indeed selling the imitations of OPPO Smartphone at the price between RM400 to RM700 (~US$93 to US$163), where the genuine model of the particular flagship smartphones are selling at the price between RM1,000 to RM2,098 (~US$229 to US$489) per unit. The operation of the raid was taken place at around 11 am on 20th November 2015 and both the teams have seized eight counterfeit products that are using the name of OPPO brand. "The case was being investigated under Section 8 on the Trade Descriptions Act 2011. It is estimated that these imitation products are worth of RM4,200 (~US$1,000)," he added, while mentioning that this is the first case involving the counterfeit seizure of the brand OPPO and the Ministry will follow up on the source of the counterfeits. “This is the first raid which the Ministry has conducted on the clone products of OPPO in Malaysia. Ever since we have gotten reports since January this year, we have been in close contact with the Ministry to further strike down the counterfeiting activities. We have brought to the Ministry’s attention that the circulation of the counterfeit products is getting worse and worse by day and we seek legal actions to be done by the authority,” said Boyce Lee, Manager of Overseas Customer Service (李学平，海外客服部售后经理) “These counterfeit products has shape and colour that is almost the same as the genuine so it is difficult to distinguish from the appearance. However, the poor design quality and unstable features of the counterfeits are somehow jeopardizing the brand name of OPPO as customer who believed their clone set is genuine will complain that the clone product is not as it is being advertised. In addition, these items could possibly contain parts or ingredients that do not work or have direct harmful or toxic effect on the user, hence user will experience malfunctions and heating that may lead to explosion,” he added. The public is urged to be vigilant and exercise caution before purchasing OPPO smartphones from any suspicious source, and should closely examine the specified features. Please refer to authorized dealers or official website for more information. Moreover, anyone with information regarding the sale or misconduct of counterfeit goods are encouraged to contact the Ministry's operations hotline 1800-886-800.
