)
Automobile major Tata Motors has introduced a campaign against the sale of spurious spare parts, under the brand name of Tata Genuine Parts (TGP) to protect its customers from the menace of counterfeit spares, company said in a statement.
Tata Motors has conducted nationwide raids to expose the burgeoning spurious spares parts business as a part of its on-going enforcement campaign. Till date, the company has conducted 33 raids in the cities like Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Solapur, Kolhapur, Latur, Sangli, Satara area, and around 125 raids across the country.
The enforcement team including the IPR enforcement, copyrights protection agencies, Tata Motors’ TGP team and the legal team, have been working closely to identify both manufacturing units and selling outlets and locations of counterfeit spares and packaging centres, across major cities and trade hubs of India.
According to Tata Motors, the most easily duplicated products include clutch parts, air/ oil /fuel filters, belts, hoses, ball joints, seals, suspension items like liners and brake pads, gear parts, syncrocone, gaskets.
For these, counterfeit packaging, labels and various other fast moving parts were being manufactured and distributed to the market from these locations.
Commenting on this exercise, Rajesh Bagga, vice president – legal, Tata Motors, said, “The use of spurious parts poses a safety risk to consumers. Data shows that over 50 per cent of spares for all popular brands sold in the market are fake and unreliable. Studies also show that 70 per cent of consumers opt for fake spares instead of visiting authorised service centres, once the warranty period on the vehicle has expired. Customer awareness is the key to curb sale of counterfeit products, prompting Tata Motors to generate countrywide awareness campaigns about safety risks posed by spurious / counterfeit spare parts.”
