Brembo’s anti-piracy campaign

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Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
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Brembo's anti-piracy campaign

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign

12th pictures

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Picture gallery: Brembo campaign against product piracy.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
Brembo

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From a small family business, in the picture the first company headquarters, Brembo has grown into a global corporation.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
Stefan Wolf

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“Kilometro Rosso”, the red kilometer: from here the group coordinates the fight against copiers.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
Michael Schumann

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Media appointment at the headquarters.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign

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“Wrong brake, real risk!” Brembo warns with handouts and explains how to distinguish fakes from originals.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
Michael Schumann

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Brembo effectively stages its products inside.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
Brembo

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Since the end of 2015, a 20-person task force led by engineer Paolo Rezzaghi has been searching the Internet and on site in Asia for manufacturers and suppliers of counterfeits.

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“In Thailand, for example, there are tons of mopeds and scooters that don’t just have fake Brembo brakes,” reports Motorbike Market Manager Roberto Pellegrini.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
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Picture gallery: Brembo campaign against product piracy.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
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Brembo brakes for the equivalent of less than 20 euros – everything is available on the Internet. Only sometimes with small mistakes.

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
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For some years now, pirated copies from China have been causing losses not only to the vehicle industry in Europe and the USA. “We know that copies of our products such as brake calipers, brake disks and brake cylinders are being sold en masse in Asia.”

Brembo's anti-piracy campaign
Michael Schumann

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Picture gallery: Brembo campaign against product piracy.

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Brembo’s anti-piracy campaign

Brembo’s anti-piracy campaign
Beware of fake brakes!

Brakes as cheap copies, never tested, put together from dubious materials, but sold with a noble logo – in Asia there are already plenty of such fakes. Brake manufacturer Brembo has now declared war on dangerous counterfeits.

Michael Schumann

06/09/2016

Paolo Rezzaghi is a real life engineer at Brembo. Patent engineer, to be precise. But for almost half a year, the northern Italian has been allowed to play detective, surfing for his employer through the seemingly endless expanses of Asian Internet marketplaces. But it’s not just a mouse click that goes into the big wide world. Because “knowing where”, Paolo Rezzaghi usually finds what he is looking for on the computer and keeps going to inspect dodgy backyard workshops in Thailand and Taiwan or to stroll through the shrill car and motorcycle tuning fairs in China’s Hong Kong and Macau special economic zones. Its job: to track down illegal copies of Brembo products. And ideally their providers and manufacturers at the same time in order to then take legal action against it.

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It has long been clear to those responsible at the Brembo headquarters near Bergamo not far from Milan that the company has a problem. For some years now, pirated copies from China have been causing losses not only to the vehicle industry in Europe and the USA. “We know that copies of our products such as brake calipers, brake disks, and brake cylinders are sold en masse in Asia.” This applies primarily to the automotive sector, where Brembo with its often fiery red pliers under the rims, it is the original equipment manufacturer for high-end brands such as Ferrari, Porsche, or AMG-Mercedes. Those who are successful will be copied, they apparently said to themselves in Bergamo. “We’ve already seen the best things there,” says Rezzaghi. “I once discovered brake calipers with the Brembo logo on them and a sticker ‘Made in Taiwan’ – we don’t even manufacture in Taiwan.”

Counterfeits also surfaced in Europe

Then he uses the projector to throw a photo of a motorcycle brake fitting made up of a pump and lever on the wall. In addition to the Italian national colors, the lettering “Brembo” is emblazoned on it. Only the r is upside down in the name. “Such parts have been on the market in Asia for years,” says Rezzaghi, not even sounding frustrated. Because he is well aware that he is fighting against windmills here. And as far as the safety aspect is concerned – after all, the quality of the brakes is what the driver’s life depends on – he says: “In Asia, buyers are usually aware that they are dealing with fakes. They behave accordingly. ”So far, Brembo has not known of any accidents, in Asia or anywhere else, that were caused by counterfeit brakes. Nevertheless, a leaflet printed in English and Chinese, which Brembo is now distributing at relevant trade fairs in Asia, warns of specific risks: “We have investigated counterfeit brake calipers confiscated by the authorities. Our tests have revealed worrying material defects that can pose considerable dangers for users, ”it says.

Since 2016, however, such dangers have not only threatened in Asia: “A few months ago such fakes also appeared in Europe,” says Rezzaghi. “We found the wrong brake calipers at a Dutch supplier,” he adds, and the eyes behind the lenses of his stylish, simple patent engineering glasses sparkle with bellicose flair. Because this spill over from Asian online marketplaces like Toabao or Alibaba to Ebay or Amazon gave him the unfamiliar detective job.

“In Europe, however, there is still no awareness of the problem with regard to counterfeit vehicle parts,” says Roberto Pellegrini. He is the Brembo Racing Market Manager for the motorcycle sector. And his direct colleague from the auto division, Luca Battistella, adds: “In the worst case, a fake Rolex bought on holiday in Asia does not display the time correctly. But here we are dealing with a completely different, more dangerous category of counterfeits. “

For all these reasons, and certainly also in order to limit the economic damage to their own company as much as possible, Brembo has now set up a kind of task force against the increasingly threatening product piracy. The team around the patent engineer Rezzaghi, who has been working as a detective since then, consists of 20 people and has consumed a budget of around 200,000 euros in the five months since it was founded – not including salaries. “Education” is at the top of the to-do list, which is ultimately the reason why Brembo was so open-minded about the MOTORRAD inquiry on the subject of “fake brake systems” – by no means typical for the industry, after all always with the competition.

In addition to education (see interview), Brembo is also increasingly relying on official controls and legal means to get the product piracy under control. “A lot has happened in this relationship in China, and there are now also laws there against counterfeiting and counterfeiting,” reports Paolo Rezzaghi. However, a distinction must be made here between patent law and trademark protection. While the latter is at least theoretically valid worldwide in the form of “trademarks”, patents are simply not recognized in Taiwan, for example. But trademark protection law also offers counterfeiters a lot of loopholes. Rezzaghi: “If, for example, there is only a Brembo sticker on a brake cylinder, i.e. the lettering is not an integral part of the counterfeit product, then the manufacturer is hardly open to us.”

All clear for Germany

While laws against product piracy are slowly being introduced in China, probably also due to the economic opening to the west, there is still practically no regulation of the illegal accessories market in Southeast Asia. “In Thailand, for example, there are tons of mopeds and scooters that don’t just have fake Brembo brakes,” reports Motorbike Market Manager Roberto Pellegrini. “No, they also have struts that Ohlins stands on,” he adds. His grin looks a bit sour. The fact that the problem is by no means affecting Brembo alone does not make things any better for him and his colleagues.

After all, Pellegrini gives the all-clear for Germany: “We are not aware of any cases of counterfeit brakes in Germany.” But that could change at any time. And to prevent this from happening, the Brembo Task Force works closely with customs, for example. One of its tasks is to intercept counterfeit products from the Far East when they are imported into the EU. Together with the Asian customs authorities, it has already been possible to arrest entire loads of counterfeit brake fittings, for example, before they are shipped, thus preventing export.

On the Brembo information sheet against product counterfeiting issued in Asia, the manufacturer is combative: “In March 2016 alone, we discovered 31,015 offers of false Brembo products on online platforms, a third of them brake calipers. We are now taking action against the majority of the identified providers. Their shops will be closed as soon as possible. “

interview

Roberto Pellegrini, Motorbike Market Manager at Brembo Racing, explains how customers can tell whether offers from Brembo brakes are potentially life-threatening counterfeits or not.

They say that some of these fakes are so good that laypeople are practically indistinguishable from the original. How can I, as a buyer, protect myself from such counterfeits??

There are various options. With the help of our “Brake Configurator” on moto.brembo.com, you can check immediately whether the part is even offered for the respective motorcycle model.

Can you explain that in more detail??

Just as an example: You can find brake calipers on the Internet that, according to the description, should fit on a Yamaha YZF Thunder Ace. However, the configurator shows you that Brembo does not offer any brake calipers for this model. In such a case, we advise you to ask an official dealer, as it could be a fake.

Why “could”?

These saddles do not have to be fake and can fit this motorcycle, but have not been officially tested and approved by Brembo for the Thunder Ace, to stay with the example.

What if I now drive a popular model for which all Brembo parts are officially available? One R1, for example?

All of our parts from the racing and high-performance series come with a sealed number card. As a buyer, you can then compare on the Internet whether the number and part match. If that’s the case, the part is real – and therefore safe.

And with conventional parts?

The usual precautionary measures apply here. For example, only buy from authorized dealers. You can easily find out whether a supplier is an authorized dealer using the Official Brembo Distributor List on our website. And of course the price is always a criterion: prices can differ by ten to 15 percent from the recommended retail price. But if an allegedly original radial brake pump suddenly only costs a fraction of the usual price, then something is probably wrong with it.

Brembo – then and now

In addition to commercial and racing vehicles (Formula 1, MotoGP), motorcycles are only one of the four vehicle categories for which the Lombard company manufactures brakes. By far the largest is the passenger car division.

The Italian brand Brembo, founded in 1961, began producing disc brakes for cars in 1964 and for motorcycles in 1972. Today it is one of the leading manufacturers of brakes and clutches worldwide. Part of the group include: the British brake manufacturer AP Racing and the rim brand Marchesini. The company’s headquarters are in Curno near Bergamo in northern Italy. Brembo is one of the original brake equipment manufacturers for practically all major motorcycle manufacturers. In 2015, the motorcycle division contributed almost ten percent to the group’s annual turnover of 2.07 billion euros. Brembo is represented in 16 countries with 24 production and business facilities and employs almost 7,800 people worldwide.

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