Between December 2015 and February 2016, representatives of the American Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confiscated more than 50,000 counterfeited hoverboards, a type of miniature Segway without steering column, with a total value of some 20 million US dollars. The largest discovery was made by customs officials in Chicago, who came upon some 16,000 of the counterfeit articles in January.
The hoverboards, which mostly originated from China and East Asia, had been equipped with counterfeit batteries and company logos. Under certain conditions, the devices may be extremely dangerous. More than three dozen cases are already known in which counterfeit hoverboards caught fire while their batteries were charging because of poor assembly and low-quality batteries.
“Not only are these hoverboards a serious safety hazard but they also threaten our economic security by hurting legitimate businesses who invest significant amounts of resources into development and protection of their brands,“ explained William Ferrara, CBP Director of Field Operations.
Apart from Chicago, counterfeit hoverboards were also confiscated in Buffalo, New York; International Falls, Minnesota; Miami, Florida; as well as Norfolk and Sterling, Virginia. Most recently, customs officials in Charleston, South Carolina, seized two shipments of some 2,400 counterfeits valued at ca. 1.7 million US dollars.
