Ferrari is one of the most famous and prestigious brands in the world, and that has created an opportunity for scammers who want to enhance the value of their products by slapping the Prancing Horse logo on the product.
The Italian carmaker has now detailed the extent of the problem, revealing the scale of the counterfeit items it has seized and successfully destroyed in 2023.
Perhaps reflecting the long-standing joke that Ferrari makes more money from merchandise than cars, most of the roughly 400,000 counterfeit items destroyed last year were clothing, such as shirts, belts, watches and shoes.
However, a total of three cars were discovered and subsequently crushed. There has long been a cottage industry of Ferrari look-alikes built from cheaper two-seat sports cars like the Toyota MR2 and Pontiac Fiero.
One such car was ordered to be crushed into a cube and designed to resemble a Ferrari 360, although it is difficult to tell what it originally was.
The Maranello brand doesn’t count the seven other cars used in filming the Michael Mann film Ferrari the film in general, as the cars were built with permission but on the condition that they would be destroyed when production ended.
“Counterfeiters are becoming more and more capable,” Ferrari’s legal adviser, Carlo Daneo, told Ferrari’s official magazine.
“There are people who use real Ferrari chassis to build the body of a more valuable car. Some cars are so well built that they end up being auctioned off and our job is to report them to the auction houses so they can take them off the market.
“And our goal is always the same: it’s not always enough to just take them off the market, we want all the counterfeits destroyed. And to achieve that end result, we try to find agreements with our partners whenever possible, so that we don’t have to resort to litigation.”
Ferrari also warned that owners of “independently customized cars” would face consequences from the brand, such as being excluded from official events and having some unspecified warranties removed.
The announcement comes after Ferrari established the Anti-Counterfeiting Rewards Project last year, which encourages the public to report any counterfeit Ferrari goods or vehicles in return for a gift from the brand.
