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Chinese authorities raided the Lepin toy company in Shenzhen, China, last week for allegedly making fake Lego products.
photo alliance / alliance photo via Getty Image
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photo alliance / alliance photo via Getty Image
Chinese authorities raided the Lepin toy company in Shenzhen, China, last week for allegedly making fake Lego products.
photo alliance / alliance photo via Getty Image
A quick visit to the LepinLand.com website and it's pretty clear, the toys that the Chinese company sells are strangely similar to another very popular toy on the market: Legos.
But he will not sell them for a very long time.
The Chinese company has posted a message on its website indicating that, at the request of the Chinese government and the Shanghai police, it is temporarily suspending the production of their block games from May.
Chinese authorities raided the Lepin factory in Shenzhen, China, last week after discovering that it was allegedly manufacturing fake Lego products. The raid resulted in the recovery of $ 30 million of counterfeit Legos and police arrested four people, the BBC reported.
Most Lepin sets, including his Star Wars series, are advertised on his website as "Lego compatible".
And now we know why. Police said in a statement that the toys had been copied from Lego plans and that more than 630,000 finished products had been calibrated at the factory, the BBC reported.
A police investigation is still in progress. According to the BBC, images posted by the Chinese authorities after the raid showed products almost identical to those made by the Danish toy giant, Lego.
The Lepin brand is undoubtedly a cheaper option, which is often sold at a fraction of the price of Legos. On Saturday afternoon, the Lepin website listed its Star Wars Millennium Falcon kit priced at $ 313.30, while an authentic Lego cost $ 799.99.
Zhong Shikai, one of the police officers charged with investigating the case, told the Xinhua official news agency that there were large differences in quality and knowledge – to do when we compared the two.
Robin Smith, vice president of Lego China and Asia Pacific, said the products could pose a safety problem for consumers, Xinhua reported.
Foreign companies in China have long expressed dissatisfaction with the enforcement of intellectual property rights due to the prevalence of counterfeiting. The AFP announced that this operation was an attempt by China to double the number of intellectual property infringements, probably to try to mitigate trade tensions with Washington.
Xinhua said the number of intellectual property lawsuits in Shanghai reached a record last year.
The Lepin website says that it will continue to sell all the remaining games, but will not restock in the future.
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