Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced yesterday that Chinese authorities have penalized two Chinese companies who fraudulently manufactured and sold counterfeit refrigerants under the Honeywell Genetron® brand name for the Chinese market.
News released by Honeywell Refrigerants reported that the companies, Changzhi Co. and Yingpeng Co., were ordered by a Chinese court in Shanghai to pay $52,000 in damages and make a public apology to Honeywell. Changzhi Co. was previously convicted under the crime of trademark counterfeiting and its principal was sentenced to jail for 3 years with a probation of 3 years.
The seizure was part of a joint effort between the company and local law enforcement in Shanghai. According to local authorities, the counterfeit refrigerant was marked as Honeywell’s Genetron 410A and 407C.
Earlier last year, Ningbo customs officers seized five export shipments of counterfeit Honeywell Genetron R22 refrigerant, reported by ACR News. While the consignments held legal Chinese export licenses for the 3,386 bottles, the packaging carried a counterfeit Genetron brand, a fact confirmed by Honeywell.
Chinese authorities had achieved some success in the year 2013 in intercepting export shipments of illegal refrigerants, including illegal exports of ozone-depleting R22 and R142b, reported by customs officers in the port of Ningbo. The gases, currently part of China’s ODP phase-out agreements under the Montreal Protocol, can’t be exported without a required export licenses.