Fake News: Ferrari destroyed 400,000 knock-offs in 2023, including 3 cars

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• Ferrari says in 2023, it destroyed over 400,000 pieces of knock-off Ferrari-branded merchandise
• Beyond eliminating faked watches and shoes, the marque also cut up several licenced movie replicas
• Last year, it launched a reward program for people who reported finding counterfeit items
  

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Companies tend to get their nose out of joint when nefarious retailers attempt to hawk products bearing branding which is decidedly unofficial. And so it is with one of the most tightly guarded marques in the automotive world, Ferrari, a brand which recently boasted that it’d destroyed nearly half a million pieces of fake merchandise in calendar year 2023 alone.

According to an infographic released by the company early July, it took a literal hatchet to unlicensed products ranging from clothing and shoes to scooters and cars — the latter included scale models and full-sized examples. In fact, three vehicles met the business end of a crusher, including the cube shown at the top of this post, which the brand says was once a “counterfeit Ferrari 360.” Ouch.

Also seeing their demise amongst the cleanup of phoney goods were almost 100,000 pairs of eyeglasses, many of which were presumably fake Ray-Bans; and 1,092 balls (most of the soccer variety), marking the first time in a long while Ferrari has crushed anyone’s balls, if you look at its performance in F1 the last few years. Don’t think anyone can get away with peddling even simple fake Ferrari stickers — the Fezza police laid claim to taking 11,500 of those off the market, as well.

To aid its in fake-finding efforts, Ferrari in late 2023 established what it calls the Anti-Counterfeiting Reward Project. “This project is aimed at encouraging the reporting of instances of counterfeiting,” said Paolo Lorenzi, Intellectual Property Senior Legal Counsel. Explaining the thinking behind the initiative, he said fakes can be “reported to us by anyone who wants to help us combat this phenomenon.” The rewards the project name refers to? An authentic Ferrari “gift item.”

Clicking through the website for doing so revealed an option to anonymously rat out fraudsters, though it warns that choice could hinder the amount of action Ferrari is able to take—it seems Maranello would prefer to know the names of its informants. Interestingly, other companies are barred from reporting, as is anyone under 18 years of age. The initiative has “an indefinite duration” according to the official website, so don’t expect Ferrari to let up on the fake makers anytime soon.

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An interesting aside to all this, unrelated to fraudulent merchandise but no less noteworthy, is the fact the marque also disposed of several licenced-by-Ferrari machines used by director Michael Mann in the making of his film chronicling the life of Enzo Ferrari. Gearheads who have seen the film may have admired those screen-star replicas as though they were real Ferrari vehicles but, from the very start of shooting, it was known these examples of movie magic would be destroyed soon after filming was finished. Some images from that endeavour are shown in this post, too.

Given the value of its brand, none of Ferrari’s actions should be surprising. While the crushed fake Fezza certainly provides an evocative visual, the brand is well within its right to dispose of merchandise being peddled by greedy types looking to make a quick buck.

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