Fight against fakes

In the first six months of last year, Adidas Lebanon’s general manager, Zeina Hallak, noticed that sales of the famous sports clothing had dropped by 20%. What she discovered was disturbing. Not only were illicit dealers selling faked Adidas products, but also official Adidas outlets had replaced authentic goods with fake ones. Their excuse? “They said they had to protect their revenues as customers were buying fakes elsewhere. Adidas was potentially losing millions of dollars,” Hallak said. Fearful that the local company would be downsized or restructured by Adidas worldwide, Hallak began implementing a tough anti-counterfeiting plan that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lawyers were hired, dozens of raids carried out, and over 50 law suits filed. Although 10,000 items have so far been confiscated, Hallak said there are tens of thousands more hidden away. Adidas has also launched a PR campaign warning retailers that it would be fighting