Trading Standards officers seize counterfeit SKF bearings

The officers, accompanied by SKF officials, entered the premises of a non-authorised SKF bearing distributor in the UK last Wednesday to repossess the bearings.

The distributor has co-operated fully with the authorities, informing SKF that a further 1.5 tonnes of various bearing types, purchased on the open market, are currently being shipped to them.

Over the last few years, SKF has carried out several operations of this kind in countries such as Germany, Italy, Holland, Greece, Sweden, China and the US, seizing hundreds of tonnes of counterfeit bearings and, more recently, in Spain where police authorities confiscated 15 tonnes of counterfeit bearings.

The implications of fake bearings can be devastating. Their unpredictable quality means that they have the potential to fail quickly, even catastrophically. The results could include expensive damage to capital equipment or serious injury to plant personnel.

The manufacture and trade of counterfeit products is a growing global concern that increasingly affects all brands and all markets.