Fake Apple stores in China getting closed down
|Last week, one of the stories floating around the blogosphere was the fake Apple Store what looked to be very real with a well stocked and furnished store. Even the employees wore Apple attire. Owned by Chinese business Yu Cheng, the fake Apple store was taking advantage of a huge demand in China for Apple products and lack of distribution with only 4 true Apple stores and over 900 authorized resellers. Yu Cheng has allegedly now requested permission from Apple to become an authorized reseller but I would venture to guess the chances of that happening now are pretty slim. Apple, with their hands full of patent lawsuits appear to have more to keep their eyes on.
From Bloomberg:
Chinese authorities shut two stores in Kunming that used Apple Inc.’s logo without the company’s permission because they lacked the proper business licenses, a newspaper run by the southwestern city’s government reported.
Three separate unauthorized Apple stores, which also were investigated, had operating licenses, according to the Dushi Shibao newspaper report that was posted on the Kunming city government’s website. Officials inspected more than 300 vendors of electronic products in the city, Dushi reported.
Apple is just jealous that they were too lazy to open up more stores in China.