Minelab Protects Consumers by Combating Counterfeit Products

Minelab MEA General Trading LLC, the leading distributor of metal detectors and accessories throughout the Middle East and Africa continue to battle strongly against counterfeit products in order to protect their customers. On Thursday 13th October, 8am at Jebel Ali all seized counterfeit items from a recent action were destroyed and recycled in Minelab’s continuous efforts to locate, combat and terminate counterfeit products.

In early 2010 Minelab’s GPX Series detectors ignited a gold rush in North Africa resulting in an increase in demand for the product. This drove Chinese counterfeit manufacturers to produce and flood the market with a large number of counterfeit GPX Series detectors which were distributed throughout Africa by illegal traders, the largest of which were based in Dubai.

Minelab cooperate closely with the Dubai Police and the Department of Economic Development to launch and develop their anti-counterfeit efforts and have worked side by side in raiding several shops and warehouses in Dubai known to have been selling counterfeit goods. In 2013 one raid led to the seizure of counterfeit Minelab products with a potential market value of AED5.9million (US$1.6m) and recently, the Dubai Police and CID led a successful raid which resulted in the seizure of over US$9 million worth of fake Minelab detectors and accessories from a warehouse in Ajman sending a shock wave through the counterfeiting industry. 

Mark Wellington, General Manager of Minelab MEA General Trading LLC stated, “We are extremely grateful for the encouragement and support provided to us by The Dubai Police and CID. Minelab’s products are used by small scale artisanal miners to mine for gold and are recognised as the best gold detectors in the world, helping many miners find tonnes of gold, improving families’ livelihoods and changing communities’ economic circumstances.  Artisanal miners generally depend on technologies that are many hundreds of years old, and gold detectors significantly increase the efficiency and safety of their activities. There is no doubt that many more Artisanal Miners would lose significant assets if not for the efforts of the Dubai Police.”

In addition to negatively impacting the lives of consumers, these fake products have had a major effect on Minelab’s overall business resulting in large losses in revenue forcing Minelab to downsize. As a result and in addition to working with local authorities, Minelab launched and continue to lead the campaign against counterfeit by implementing the below:

• Establishing education and training campaigns for artisanal miners to show them the dangers of buying fake products and the way to identify a fake detector;

• Introducing labelling and other technologies by which Minelab’s Customers can verify that their products are genuine; and
• Setting up an office in Dubai to distribute Minelab products and accessories throughout the region and support anti-counterfeit effort by gathering intelligence and working with local authorities and legal professionals to bring the culprits to justice.