Jayne Gregory*
was pregnant with her first baby
and perusing the booths at a downtown Toronto baby show this past
spring when she noticed a table selling a product called Happy
Mats—silicone placemats that double as plates and suction to the table
or
high-chair tray so little hands can’t knock them off. Gregory had heard of the mats and they sounded great, so she bought one.
What she didn’t know is that she hadn’t actually purchased a real
Happy Mat; it was a knock off. “I just assumed it was the same one—I had
no idea it might be something different,” says Gregory. How
could she have known? The booth, which featured a number of
brightly coloured teething toys,
bibs and stuffies, looked totally legitimate. The seller was pleasant,
and Gregory was, after all, at a large, reputable, big-city trade show.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later that she discovered through a random Facebook post about counterfeit
baby products
that she hadn’t bought the real Happy Mat, which is manufactured by a
Colorado-based company called Ezpz, and distributed in Canada by Toronto
company
Hip Mommies.
“My biggest concern is health and safety,” says Gregory. “There’s going
to be food touching this, and I would be putting it in the dishwasher.
What if the material breaks down?”
Hip Mommies owner Jennifer Chua says she often hears from parents
who, unbeknownst to them, have purchased fake Ezpz mats. “They come to
us saying the product doesn’t work well, and they want a refund,” she
says. “I ask them where they bought it, and then I have to tell them
they’ve bought a fake.”
Unfortunately, this problem isn’t limited to Ezpz mats. Fake baby
products are now everywhere—both online and at bricks-and-mortar stores.
And some of them could put kids in real danger.
“The counterfeit problem in Canada is massive,” says Lorne Lipkus, an
intellectual property lawyer in Toronto. He says the value of
counterfeit goods sold in Canada annually is in the tens of billions,
and while no one is certain how much of that is baby products, it’s
clear that many major baby-gear brands are affected. Infant-carrier
maker Ergo, baby gear company Skip Hop and stroller manufacturer
Maclaren, for example, all have pages on their websites about fakes.
How does this happen?
Counterfeiters are masters at replicating. They’ll make fake
product websites that look just like the real ones, or advertise a
product on a site like eBay, Amazon or AliExpress using images stolen
from the real company. An image of Chua’s daughter appears on the
authentic Ezpz mat packaging, and she says the picture is now being used
around the world to sell fake mats.
Chua says scammers have even begun running real Ezpz ads on Facebook,
but when users click it, they’re taken to an illegitimate site, and
Lipkus says criminals are increasingly using social media to peddle
their wares. “We’re seeing more and more where social media sites like
Facebook or Instagram are being used to house the counterfeit
operations,” he says.
Because the counterfeit problem is so rampant on Chinese e-commerce
sites like Alibaba and AliExpress, it’s super easy for pretty much
anyone to order a bunch of knock-offs and sell them at baby shows, in
pop-up retail locations, on
buy-and-sell websites like Kjiji and Craigslist, and even in mom-to-mom Facebook groups.
The dangers of fakes
Wearing a fake Kate Spade bag that you got on Canal St. in New York is one thing. Wearing your baby in a knock-off
baby carrier
is another. When a shady company fakes a name-brand product, there
aren’t any checks and balances to ensure the item won’t put your kid in
danger. Nobody is checking what material it is made of, how strong the
product is, and what chemicals were used, whereas products that are
imported legally must be declared with the government and can be subject
to inspection. They would have to comply with Health Canada’s consumer
product safety regulations, which address things like flammability,
phthalates and for certain children’s items, choking and strangling
hazards.
It’s important to note as well that companies who are legitimately
importing from China will visit factories and develop relationships with
manufacturers to ensure processes are acceptable. Distributors may also
do some due diligence; Chua’s Hip Mommies, for example, reviews
third-party safety testing reports for its products before it decides to
distribute them.
On top of that, when you buy fakes—whether it’s baby gear or that
Kate Spade bag—you may well be supporting bad people doing very bad
things. “The factories in China that are making more than 80 percent of
the counterfeits are often controlled by organized crime,” explains
Lipkus. “They might be providing terrorist financing, and they often use
slave and youth labour.” He says he’s had clients go into factories
where kids as young as six years old are mixing dangerous chemicals.
That can’t be worth a few dollars off the list price.
How to avoid buying a counterfeit baby product
While Lipkus says that every major store you can name has had a
problem with counterfeit products, there are nonetheless ways you can
protect yourself.
-If you’re looking to buy a specific product, visit the
manufacturer’s website to see who is legally allowed to sell it. You’ll
often find this under “authorized retailers/distributors” or “where to
buy.” Both brick and mortar stores and online shops are usually listed.
-If you’re buying online from Amazon, click on the “sold by” link. It
should list either the manufacturer itself, or the name of a
distributor, which you can check to ensure it is authorized (see point
above).
-Be skeptical if you notice poor descriptions of the product online,
such as grammatical errors or other eyebrow-raising verbiage. For
example, a fake Ezpz mat on Amazon.ca says the product is good for use
on baby walkers, an item that’s illegal in Canada.
-Stick to well-known, well-established online retailers, and/or ones
that also have brick and mortar locations. If you find a smaller online
retailer that you’d like to shop from, do a bit of digging. Do they have
a Contact Us page, and do people respond to your emails? Are their
social media accounts active? Beware of websites that offer time-limited
deals, or ‘only five left’ at a bargain price.
-If you’re buying in person from a store, baby show or market,
inspect the product carefully. Does it look and feel well-made? Take a
close look at the packaging, as counterfeiters often use flimsy plastic
and leave off key details. You may also see spelling and grammatical
errors.
-Be careful when buying from buy-and-sell websites or off Facebook.
If someone advertises that they have a limited number of an item at a
great price, those could be knock-offs. Similarly, if someone in a
neighbourhood group says they have 14 baby carriers available, it’s
worth wondering why any one person would have so many carriers.
What to do if you discover your item is fake
Start with the retailer who sold you the item and request a
refund. It’s possible they, too, have been duped, and may readily offer
you a refund. If that doesn’t work, call your credit card company. Most
protect against fraud, so if you’ve used your card to buy an item that
turns out to be counterfeit, you may be able to get your money back.
Lipkus also recommends informing the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre as well
as the police (using the non-emergency line). It’s an extra step, but if
nobody reports these things, it can never be stopped. Once the matter
is resolved, destroy the item. If it’s not safe for your baby, it’s not
safe for anybody else’s either.
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