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- The miser pays with the engine: sellers of fake car sales have become more active on the Web
The miser pays with the engine: sellers of fake car sales have become more active on the Web
Sellers of counterfeit motor oils have become noticeably more active on online platforms, Izvestia found. Car service stations and the National Automobile Union also report an increase in sales of substandard products. Unscrupulous sellers are verified on the platforms, but low—quality oil is sent to customers, often without mandatory markings and technical designations. Car owners complain massively about such cases. How to recognize a fake and protect your car is described in the Izvestia article.
How to cheat online with low-quality car oil
Buyers of car oil on online platforms are increasingly reporting low-quality products. Izvestia reviewed the reviews of real customers. Many people note the absence of holograms and the inability to verify the 16-digit authentication code on the manufacturer's official website. Some car owners claim that after using such oil, carbon deposits appear in the engine. Other customers write that car service stations refuse to use questionable goods — they see that the packaging differs from the original. Some reviews report: "the containers of the presented products are often not sealed with foil or have traces of opening with leaking liquid."
There is information on one of the online platforms that the seller sells an original product with delivery from a federal retail chain. However, even in this case, some buyers found the absence of a hologram and protective foil. Izvestia sent a request to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
— The problem of counterfeiting in the Russian market is growing every year. Nowadays, fakes are largely disguised as goods of parallel import. The opportunity to purchase certificates and declarations of conformity opens the way to the Russian market, including in neighboring countries where control is not so strict," Anton Shaparin, president of the National Automobile Union (NAS), told Izvestia.
Accordingly, the presence of such documents in the Rosaccreditation database of the Internet platform is interpreted as an original product that has passed quality control, although it has nothing to do with the original products, he explained.
Rosaccreditation, together with Roskachestvo and industry associations, constantly monitors the authenticity of test reports and declarations of conformity, the service noted. If violations are detected, the declaration is suspended, they said.
— This also applies to documents issued by other EAEU member states — Rosaccreditation has the right to suspend declarations based on such protocols. Due to the systematic work, the number of certificates with violations is decreasing from year to year. If we compare the comparable periods of the current and previous years, then this decrease is 70%," said Dmitry Volvach, head of the service.
As a measure to reduce the number of sales of low-quality oil on the Internet, Rosaccreditation noted that from March 1, 2025, labeling of certain types of lubricating oils with the Honest Mark system has become mandatory. A mark for such types of lubricants is not issued if the product does not have a declaration of conformity registered in the Rosaccreditation register.
It is also possible to check the status of the product conformity document in the Unified Register of Certificates of Conformity and Declarations of Conformity on the official website of Rosaccreditation, concluded there.
According to Autostat, the percentage of counterfeit car parts sold is constantly growing. If in 2023 it was 27%, then in 2024 it increased to 37%. The number of counterfeits in this category of goods online has also increased, from 29.5% in 2023 to 43.1% in 2024.
In November, it became known that the Center for the Study of Consumer Behavior (CIPP) of Roskachestvo conducted a survey to find out what difficulties Russians face when shopping in online stores. According to the results of the study, it turned out that consumers are most often dissatisfied with a product that does not match the description — 24% of respondents indicated this. Another 16% of customers faced a defect, and 15% faced false information about products.
What kind of car breakdowns can this lead to?
At the same time, some sellers on the Internet believe that concerns about mass sales of low-quality automotive products are unjustified. So, responding to customer complaints about bubbles under the sticker and the absence of a hologram on the lid, the seller Phoenix Lubricants stated that such packaging features are related to Turkish production. According to him, bubbles may appear under the label on the cans and there may be no verification stickers. Previously, such markings were present on oils produced in Russia under license, but after the brand left, such controls were no longer used, the seller explained.
According to Vasily Gavrilyuk, head of the Wildberries cars and automotive products department, a number of spare parts manufacturers supply products to the marketplace directly without intermediaries, which eliminates the possibility of counterfeiting. He also explained that tires, car oils and some other consumables and spare parts are necessarily marked using the Honest Mark system as an additional tool for quality control and product safety.
Some buyers of automotive oils on online platforms found it difficult to name specific stores where they purchased questionable goods. According to them, such sellers often quickly close or disappear from the site, which makes subsequent requests or checks impossible.
Alexander, the owner of the Mercedes car, noted in his comment on one of the Internet resources that after buying the oil he had to make major engine repairs. And according to Kia owner Mikhail, due to the oil purchased on the Internet, hydraulic compensators rattled in the engine of his car and carbon deposits appeared.
— Fakes are now freely available on Internet resources, some have more than 80% of them. The prices there are correspondingly very low. It is quite difficult to compete with them. A checkmark confirming the originality of a product is not an indicator of its quality — there are many simple sole proprietors in such stores who can take the original once, get this checkmark, and then sell a fake," Official Oil store owner Anton Kondratenko told Izvestia.
The mass nature of fakes was also confirmed by Illarion Demchikov, Marketing Director of the Emex auto parts marketplace. The proportion of counterfeit products in consumables such as filters, pads and oils can actually reach up to 80%, the expert noted. Popular online platforms and car markets are focused on the segment where it is necessary to make the main revenue on turnover, and that's the problem, he added.
Some car service stations in Moscow and the Moscow region also reported the presence of such a problem. Izvestia's interlocutors at FitService, AVS-Service, and Specialdrive clarified that well-known brand car oil purchased on high-profile online platforms is most often fake and they use their trusted suppliers.
Anti-counterfeiting measures
In Russia, selling fakes on the Internet can result in both administrative and criminal liability. Well-known brands and brands are most often used as the basis for counterfeiting and counterfeiting, according to the materials of Rospotrebnadzor.
Brand owners can seek compensation for infringement of exclusive trademark rights, Alexey Govyrin, a member of the State Duma Committee on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, previously told Izvestia. If a company or sole proprietor sells counterfeit goods and the damage to the copyright holder is less than 400 thousand rubles, the business will be fined at least 50 thousand rubles. rubles, the exact amount is determined by the court. In case of repeated violations, criminal proceedings may already be initiated against the head of the company or the entrepreneur. The penalty may be a fine of 100 thousand rubles, compulsory, forced or correctional labor, as well as imprisonment for up to two years. At the same time, low-quality products will be confiscated. For the sale of counterfeit goods, the seller faces a fine of 12 thousand rubles.
The law on the platform economy will come into force on October 1, 2026. The document outlines the responsibilities of platform operators, such as the requirement to check sellers in government information systems. Copyright holders will be able to block the sale of counterfeit goods on online platforms for up to three days. To do this, they will need to contact the operator through their personal account on the site, which will protect customers from fakes.
According to automotive expert and auto journalist Peter Bakanov, the situation is complicated by the fact that some buyers are trying to save money and choose cheaper offers. As a result, the risk of purchasing products from unknown sellers who disguise themselves as well-known brands increases, he noted.
Illarion Demchikov from Emex confirms this thesis and notes that it is possible to reduce the risk of buying a fake if you carefully choose a site. Firstly, these are specialized marketplaces with a good reputation. Secondly, the official stores of specific manufacturers. Now many manufacturers and importers of components sell their products directly to the buyer, without intermediaries, the expert noted. When choosing automotive products, it is also useful to study the reviews of other users — they undergo basic moderation and can help to notice possible quality problems, Vasily Gavrilyuk added.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
