How to Handle a Counterfeit of Your Product
A counterfeit of your product carries your name and none of your quality controls. The safety exposure is yours in practice even if not in law. Gather evidence properly, take legal advice early, and address consumer safety rather than only the commercial loss.
Why This Is a Safety Issue First
This guide is for brand owners in India who have found or suspect a counterfeit of their product.
The instinctive framing is commercial: someone is taking sales. The more serious framing is safety. A counterfeit carries your brand name, your claims and your pack design, and none of your specification, testing or quality controls. Nobody knows what is in it.
If a consumer is harmed by a counterfeit, they will attribute it to your brand, complain to you, and tell others. Your complaint records will show a product problem that your batch records cannot explain, which is itself confusing until you know a counterfeit is circulating.
So the response has two parts: the legal and commercial action against the counterfeiter, and the practical work of protecting consumers and distinguishing genuine product from fake. The second part is often neglected and matters more.
Gathering Evidence
Do this before confronting anyone.
| Step | What to Capture |
|---|---|
| Obtain physical samples | Buy them yourself, keep the receipt and packaging intact |
| Record the source | Seller name, address, platform, date and price |
| Photograph everything | Pack, label, batch number, seals, from all sides |
| Record the batch number | And check it against your own batch records |
| Preserve the samples | Unopened where possible, stored and logged |
| Document the differences | From your genuine product, specifically and in detail |
| Capture online listings | Screenshots with URL and date visible |
| Record consumer complaints | Any that may relate, with the batch numbers given |
| Keep a chronology | When you learned what, and from whom |
Checking the batch number against your own records is the single most useful early step. A number that does not exist in your records, or that does exist but with a different quantity or dispatch destination, tells you a great deal about what you are dealing with.
Protecting Consumers
The part that cannot wait for the legal process.
Publish How to Identify Genuine Product
On your website and channels: what the genuine pack looks like, what features to check, and how to verify a batch number if you offer that.
Tell Your Distributors
They are your eyes in the market and may already be seeing it. Ask them to report sightings with evidence.
Handle Complaints Differently
When a complaint arrives, check the batch number against your records before investigating as a quality issue.
Take Advice on Notification
Whether any regulatory notification is appropriate is a question for professional advice, not a judgment call.
Publishing identification guidance carries a trade-off: it tells the counterfeiter what to copy next. Discuss with your lawyer which features to publicise and which to keep as internal verification points.
Making Your Product Harder to Copy
Preventive measures, in rough order of difficulty to replicate.
- A tamper-evident seal with a distinctive, hard-to-source specification.
- A unique code per pack, with a verification route for consumers.
- A QR code linking to a verification page that records check attempts.
- Specialist printing features on the label, discussed with your printer.
- A distinctive pack component sourced under your own arrangement.
- Batch number formatting that is checkable against a published pattern.
- Holographic or specialist label elements, weighed against cost.
- Controlled packaging supply, so surplus printed material does not leak.
- Reconciliation of printed packaging quantities against production.
Where Counterfeits Often Originate
Worth examining your own chain.
Surplus printed packaging is a common source. If your printer produces more labels than were used and they are not destroyed or reconciled, they can be used on other product. Require reconciliation and destruction of surplus printed material, in writing.
Over-runs at the manufacturer are another. A production run that makes more than ordered, with the surplus leaving by another route, produces product that is genuine in composition but outside your control. Quantity reconciliation against printed packaging is the check.
Returned or expired stock that is not destroyed can re-enter the market. Require documented destruction rather than taking it on trust.
And a terminated distributor holding stock can continue selling long after the relationship ends, which is why the distributor agreement should state what happens to stock on termination.
Examining these before concluding the problem is entirely external is worth the discomfort.
Checklist
On discovering a suspected counterfeit.
- Buy physical samples yourself and keep receipts and packaging intact.
- Photograph everything and record the seller, platform, date and price.
- Check the batch number against your own records.
- Preserve samples unopened where possible, logged and stored.
- Document the differences from genuine product in detail.
- Capture online listings with URL and date.
- Keep a dated chronology of what you learned and when.
- Take qualified legal advice before contacting anyone.
- Take professional advice on any notification obligation.
- Publish identification guidance, with legal input on what to disclose.
- Inform distributors and ask for sightings with evidence.
- Check batch numbers on incoming complaints before treating them as quality issues.
- Require printed packaging reconciliation and destruction of surplus.
- Require quantity reconciliation against printed packaging at the manufacturer.
- Require documented destruction of returned and expired stock.
- Ensure your distributor agreement covers stock on termination.
- Consider per-pack codes and a consumer verification route.
Need Controlled Packaging and Reconciliation?
Ask our team how printed packaging is reconciled and surplus handled before you place a first order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why treat a counterfeit as a safety issue?
Because it carries your brand name, claims and pack design with none of your specification, testing or quality controls, so nobody knows what is in it. A harmed consumer will attribute it to your brand and complain to you.
What is the most useful first step?
Checking the counterfeit’s batch number against your own records. A number that does not exist, or exists with a different quantity or dispatch destination, tells you a great deal about what you are dealing with.
Should I publish how to identify genuine product?
Usually yes, but it tells the counterfeiter what to copy next. Discuss with your lawyer which features to publicise and which to retain as internal verification points.
Where do counterfeits often come from?
Frequently from your own chain: surplus printed packaging that was never reconciled or destroyed, production over-runs leaving by another route, returned or expired stock not actually destroyed, and terminated distributors continuing to sell held stock.
What preventive measures help?
A distinctive tamper-evident seal, unique per-pack codes with a consumer verification route, specialist printing features, controlled packaging supply with reconciliation, and documented destruction of surplus printed material and returned stock.