ZVEI, Germany's electrical trade association, recently held a press conference in Frankfurt to announce a new action platform to counter the appearance of unsafe products on the German market.

The action platform includes TUV and VDE, and established the working plan to remove unsafe products from the market. Current dangerous examples cited were multi-plug adapters, car headlamp bulbs, electric toasters and electric kettles.

This closely follows recent German product bans of electric kettles fitted with copy STRIX controls. Kettle brands recently banned include TOKYO, GLOBUS, SUMO, HORIZON and FIRST.

On behalf of European consumers in the European domestic appliance industry, STRIX would like to thank both ZVEI and the German Authorities for their efforts in combating the threats posed by imported appliances containing copy (= unsafe) components.

They would also like to thank the Chinese Government, especially the department of state CSBTS (China State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision), MOFTEC (Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation) and CIQ (China Inspection and Quarantine). The Chinese government, being aware that China is the major source of these counterfeit and defective products, have, during the past two years, taken many effective steps to reduce the problem.

In the electric kettle market sector the source of the problem is a small number of companies of which YONG HENG Temperature Control Devices Factory, Guangdong Province, is the largest and most persistent offender. YONG HENG components appear in the majority of offending kettles found in Europe.

It is instructive to examine the record of YONG HENG. They have been manufacturing copies of STRIX components for over 4 years. Tests conducted by VDE show that kettles containing YONG HENG components are "dangerously unsafe", due to their incorporation in the kettle. YONG HENG manufacture without correct engineering specifications which is an inevitable outcome of copying.

In a recent discussion with YONG HENG, their managing director Mr Jie Cheng Shao indicated that he would build a new factory because they had been so successful. What is absolutely clear is that a European manufacturer conducting business like YONG HENG would, long ago, have ceased trading because of the costs of repeated recalls of "dangerously unsafe" product. YONG HENG's business results in the supplying of dangerously inferior product into the European market in a way that no European manufacturer could possibly sustain.

The Chinese government, despite their many efforts in other areas, have not yet permanently closed YONG HENG's production lines. It is clear that if YONG HENG's lines are not closed and if severe retrospective action is not taken against them, then they will become a model for many other Chinese companies to emulate in all sectors of the domestic appliance industry.

STRIX concludes that it is imperative that, permanent closure of these production lines, destruction of all production means, and retrospective action including full recall, be forced on YONG HENG by the Chinese Government. Otherwise the threat to consumers and to legitimate manufacturing industry will be greatly increased by a minority of Chinese companies unscrupulous enough to take advantage of the situation.

YONG HENG, although the largest in our sector, is not the only company engaged in these activities, and the details of the other offenders are also known.

Although this particular press release majors on just one sector of the domestic appliance industry, clearly the consequences of inaction on this matter by the Chinese government will have severe consequences for the whole industry, and perhaps particularly that in Europe.