Prompted by an American expat, Chinese authorities in Kunming launched a crackdown on knockoff Apple stores and ended up discovering 22 businesses in the city using Apple iconography to sell their wares. Some of these shops re-created Apple’s cash vacuums perfectly, right down to the badges hanging from exployees’ necks.

Chinese officials have ordered the stores to drop their acts out of respect for Apple’s brand identity. Those communists can be so touchy about capitalism. — PZS

BBC:

The shops have been told to stop using the logos as Chinese laws prohibit copying the “look and feel” of another company without permission.

It is not clear whether the shops being reprimanded were selling products sourced from Apple distributors in the country or grey market imports.

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