HP Conducts Disgraceful Anti-Counterfeit Raids in India

HP reportedly conducted anti-counterfeit raids in an arbitrary manner with no procedure whatsoever followed by the raiding team. The enforcement team raided Ranjit Nagar commercial complex, Bhikaji Cama Place, Trans Yamuna, and the Nehru Place IT complex.

Puneet Singhal, President of Computer Media Dealers Association (CMDA-Delhi), informed that during the raids, the team never properly identified itself and relied solely upon their own witnesses rather than neutral observers. Each search was finished within minutes.

The dealers mainly alleged that no proper inventory material was provided, and their seizures were not authenticated by signatures from either HP or the raiding team. This haphazard, disgraceful procedure gave the raiding team enough space to manipulate the stocks in any fashion. There have also been serious allegations of favoritism by the raiding team as well as under or over reporting of the seized goods.

CMDA-Delhi closed the entire Delhi market of Delhi relating to computer consumables for a day, under the strongest protest and submitted a statement of harassment to the Delhi Police. The association has sent a written request for clarification to the Managing Director of HP India.

Singhal commented, “We have always stood for all ethical values in business and have always maintained that we condemn counterfeit activity whatsoever in any form. We have always been co-operating with HP and other vendors. However, it has been recently noted that upon HP instructions certain raids have been conducted across Delhi wherein lapses on the part of the raiding team—which included the Delhi Police and HP representatives—have  been observed. Our association declared closure of all our markets on April 13 as a mark of our protest to highlight our sentiment for the procedural lapses on the part of the raiding team which has also resulted in an atmosphere of fear within our channel community as a whole.”

The association is exploring all possible remedies to strongly protest  this issue of harassment caused to its consumable channel community.

Mahinder Agarwal, President of another Delhi based All Delhi Dealers Association (ADCTA), said “We encourage ethical business, but such kind of raids that create panic in the market are intolerable. We are against the system of conducting raids. Vendors, backed by our association, can jointly alert the market against the existence of such dealers in counterfeit goods.