

China Orders Two of Five Fake Apple Stores to Close - tilt
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/china-finds-five-unauthorized-apple-stores-in-kunming-city-shuts-two.html

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gchucky
Apparently this problem of fake stores isn't limited to just China; others
were reported in "...Burma, Croatia, Columbia, Slovenia, Spain and
Venezuela."[1]

[1] - [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/25/fake-
apple-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/25/fake-apple-stores-
not-limited-to-china)

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wccrawford
I could wish for more details on why the other 2 were closed, and exactly how
Yu's 3 stores looked and branded themselves.

From what little is in the article, Yu seems to copy Apple slavishly and it
seems his stores would be a good addition to Apple's official network. He
obviously cares enough to get it right.

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wisty
The other 2 didn't have business licenses. As in, they weren't registered to
pay tax, employ workers, and licensed to carry out business. That's frowned
upon. Their fake "Apple" branding has nothing to do with the story, except as
link bait.

Yu's 3 are registered properly with the government, but not with Apple. The
Apple-registered stores don't like this (as Yu might be cutting costs,
avoiding Apple taxes, and so on), but he's not flagrantly breaking any laws
(except maybe a trademark violation, which the local authorities are less
vigorous at pursuing). Apple might be able to press charges themselves, but it
looks like the local government isn't going to do it for them.

Maybe Yu would argue it is simply fair use (given he _is_ selling Apple
goods), or that Apple's restrictive business requirements violate some Chinese
antitrust laws (if there are any such laws). Or he might just stall, and hope
he's too small a target for Apple to bother suing.

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rickdale
They may claim to purchase real iphones, ipads and macs, but anybody with any
biz-know-how about China will tell you that knockoffs can be better than the
real deal. I would bet that fake stores are selling counterfeit devices,
regardless of their claims.

