Copies for Sale

I arrived in the UAE at the end of Dubai Summer Surprises, and all the malls promised a drawing for a car if one spent at least £15. I had to purchase furnishings for my villa, so I filled out many raffle coupons with my name, address, telephone, and e-mail.

As a result, I now get more than 100 spam e-mails every day. One common offer is for a genuine Rolex copy for $200. Since I’ve declined offers of genuine, authentic Rolex copies for less than €5 in the Dubai souks, I have not been tempted by these spams. Rolex does not allow its watches to be legally sold over the Internet, nor for its licensed retailers to list prices over the Internet, so there is no way to find out how much a real Rolex costs without going into one of their retail stores. I'm sure, however, that I can't afford one.

Yesterday, I went with Faysel to the industrial area of Sharjah where he showed me genuine, authentic Ferrari copies for less than €10,000. ‘They make them in Bangladesh and bring them here.’ Since I could see that the car was under construction in Sharjah, I found the claim of Bangladeshi construction a bit hard to believe. ‘They make everything here; see, over there, that Bangladeshi is making the engine.’ Again, another inoperative statement by Faysel.

The truth is that, for about €5,000, the shop will fit a Ferrari-looking fibreglass frame over another chassis, the chassis to be provided by the purchaser. They also do Lamborghinis if the buyer prefers. Once painted and polished, the vehicles look, to the untrained eye, as if they might possibly be Ferraris or Lamborghinis.

This sort of thing is also provided in the West. A suitably sporty car would cost around $20,000, and the customization would be another $20,000, but, in the UAE, the customization labour is much cheaper, though parts and materials cost about the same as in the West. The copy, based on a new chassis, would cost less than €25,000; based on a used chassis, less than €10,000. Which fits with a news story that China is making genuine, authentic Ferrari copies for $10,000.

It is, of course, a violation of intellectual property rights to stamp the Ferrari or Lamborghini name on the resulting vehicles, but, if the shape is similar but not identical, and no name or trademarked symbol is used, I think the process might be more or less legal. More legal, in any case, than the genuine, authentic Rolex copies. Faysel suggested a legal business of building the €25,000 versions with enough minor alterations to avoid trademark infringement, then selling them for about €30,000 to Western collectors of such things. To be profitable, it is necessary to ship a minimum of four, so this would tie up quite a bit of capital, more than Faysel has available.

Faysel also suggested buying used chassis for about €2,000, having them converted into genuine, authentic fake used Ferraris, then selling them as ‘stolen’ Ferraris for about €20,000. Since Ferraris sell for €400,00 - €600,000 (depending on model and options), Faysel thought this could be a profitable business.

Only a buyer would have to be incredibly stupid to pay Ferrari prices for one of these automobiles, since the engine is, in fact, the one that came with the original chassis, one that clearly shows its non-Ferrari origins.

I also remain sceptical of Faysel’s claim that the workers are Bangladeshi, since they all speak fluent Urdu without a Bengali accent.