KEY POINTS:
Many people dreaming of "lean, sexy, rock-hard abs" were left in the lurch yesterday as hundreds of fake exercise machines were crushed.
New Zealand Customs destroyed one of its largest hauls of counterfeit goods, a shipment of fake Ab King Pros.
The popular brand of exercise machine, which promises the perfect six-pack, was the latest example of a growing problem with counterfeit imports, Customs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said.
Yesterday she helped send 748 of the fake machines to the crusher.
The distributor of genuine Ab King Pro machines, Brand Developers, filed a border protection notice in October indicating it believed the goods were being counterfeited.
Since then, Customs had intercepted almost 5000 units in 18 shipments from China.
Their total retail value was about $1.4 million, Customs officials said.
Since 1995, 232 border protection notices have been filed, resulting in the seizure of more than 1.2 million bogus items.
"It is important for rights holders to protect the integrity of their brand," said Ms Mahuta.
Although large scale shipments were not common, Customs said it often intercepted sizeable quantities of electrical goods, including fake mobile phones, hair straighteners and computer products.
Over the past 10 years, there had been a notable shift in the kind of counterfeits being imported.
Once, the focus was mainly on fashion items; now, fake electrical and pharmaceutical goods being intercepted were proving a risk to the public.
"It's a health and safety issue," said the lawyer for Brand Developers, Teresa Walker.
She said the counterfeit exercise machines were poorly put together, improperly welded, and much lighter than the real thing.
The machines were often sold for or near $200, the price of genuine Ab King Pro machines, and Ms Walker said unwitting users may be placing themselves in danger.
"There's nothing worse than paying out a lot of money only to find some defect."
