Temu sold fake clothing using a prominent South African computer brand’s logo
Merchants on the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu listed counterfeit goods featuring several prominent South African brands, including items bearing the Mecer logo.
Four products came up when searching “Mecer” on Temu: a newsboy cap, a belt buckle, a T-shirt, and a collapsible canvas container. Mustek confirmed that the products were knock-offs.
Mecer is owned by Mustek, one of South Africa’s oldest, most established, and well-known computer assemblers and ICT distributors.
Founded by David Kan in 1987, Mustek South Africa’s first sales offices were in Rosebank, and the assembly plant was in Ga-Rankuwa, northwest of Pretoria.
The company initially assembled PCs for other brands — including Teledex, Microbond, and Brother — before Kan realised there was big potential for an in-house brand.
Economic sanctions against South Africa at the time provided an opportunity for Mustek’s Mecer brand to establish itself in the market.
Major PC brands from countries boycotting South Africa’s Apartheid government policies had exited the market, leaving a vacuum.
By the time the country became a democracy and the sanctions were lifted, Mecer had proven itself and established brands had to chase the company for customers.
Mustek listed on the JSE in 1997. Kan was well known for his humility and said much of his success was due to great timing and his background.
“The global PC industry started to take off in 1987, and Taiwanese companies were the main hardware suppliers to the global market,” he previously told MyBroadband.
“Being Taiwanese, I certainly took a lot of advantages as a startup.”
MyBroadband discovered the knock-offs after querying Temu about how it ensures that products sold on its platform comply with South African National Standards and respect local brands and trademarks.
Temu responded by asking us to provide specific examples. After a few minutes on the platform, we had found at least 10 different major brands whose logos were being used on knock-off merchandise.
Some of the knock-offs we discovered included bags with the Woolworths logo, various Nando’s-branded items, counterfeit supporters jerseys, and various items with the Buffelsfontein logo.
Temu removed listings reported for knock-offs
“Temu requires sellers to comply with applicable laws and regulations and platform policies as a condition of operating on the marketplace,” the e-commerce giant said after being given the screenshots.
“The unauthorised use of intellectual property is prohibited. In response to your specific query, we are in the process of taking down the listings as a precaution while we review the products.”
This was not the first time MyBroadband highlighted the issue. Last year, we also found various items exploiting the branding of popular sports teams on the platform.
South Africa is not unique either, with Members of the European Parliament recently reporting back after a mission to China on e-commerce platforms offering direct import services from the country.
“We witnessed how big these companies are. We are not used to the size of these companies, and they are now very active in our market,” Parliament member Dirk Gotink said on an EPP Group podcast.
Gotink said they found the companies receptive whenever confronted about the problem of counterfeit and unsafe products being sold on their platforms. “They want to comply,” he said.
“However, we still don’t see it at the border, which is the main problem. You can find all kinds of fake, unsafe, and unhealthy products on platforms like Temu, and we have to do much more to stop it.”
South Africa’s problems are similar, including shortcomings in border enforcement by the South African Revenue Service’s customs division.
Over the years, MyBroadband has received many complaints from small- and medium-sized sellers who said they have ensured compliance with local regulations at great cost.
This included obtaining Letters of Authority from the NRCS, type approval from telecommunications regulator ICASA, and other necessary certifications.
Product distributors and merchants told MyBroadband they were being driven out of business by retailers, including Temu, that were allowing cheaper, non-compliant goods on their platforms.
Energy industry analysts and associations have also warned about the safety dangers inherent in non-compliant electrical goods being sold in South Africa.
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