Press / Leaflets

Joint Press Release - DESPEC & ICCE

Despec Group BV is one of the members of The Imaging Consumables Coalition of Europe Middle East and Africa's (ICCE) Partner Program which has been set up to highlight the problem of counterfeit consumables in the supply chain and encourage the distributors to report suspect offers to ICCE for investigation. The main aim is to rid the marketplace of illegal competition. Members include XMA, Integra and of course, Despec.

ICCE and some of its members are currently conducting investigations in Egypt, Dubai and will soon be active in Saudi Arabia as Counterfeit levels are much higher there than in Europe. ICCE conducted a number of retail raids in Dubai in July 2002 with the help of The Economic Department. This is the start of a concerted campaign to track down the counterfeit suppliers in the region. Further investigations are in place and it is hoped action in Saudi and Egypt will follow shortly. ICCE will also be training the Economic Departments in Sharjah and Dubai with regard to identifying ICCE member counterfeit products. Somewhere between 15 and 20% of products in the UAE are counterfeit, and it is estimated the problem could be as high as 80% in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, compared to 10-15% in Europe.

The objectives of ICCE are:-

  • To offer education about how counterfeit products enter the distribution channel, thus protecting the distributor and consumer.
  • Publicising successful legal actions taken by ICCE and its members
  • ICCE is creating links with the World Customs Organisation, The World Intellectual Property Organisation and SG-UCLAF to highlight the industry problem.
  • Links are to be created with national police divisions and Interpol and ICCE is working with the European Commission in order to protect the consumer from intellectual property related crime.

Despec has achieved major growth over the last decade and one of the company's goals is to integrate their business model through the expansion of working closely with major brands such as HP, Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Sony, and Oki and also with major customers.

For further information about Despec, please visit www.despec.com or contact Albert H. van der Horst on +31 (0) 515 437506.