The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is urging Australians to click cautiously following the release of research showing up to 60 per cent of online search results connect consumers with retailers selling counterfeits1.
A quarter of search engine queries in automotive parts and four other sectors returned potentially harmful sites in the first three results, according to research by intellectual property protection firm Incopro.
More than one in three websites returned in search engine results for researched sectors, including automotive parts, were for sites offering counterfeit products or products that infringe intellectual property.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said counterfeit car parts endangered everyone.
“The advice of the industry is that customers should only trust vehicle parts acquired through the authorised dealer network.