New awareness campaign to stamp out bogus goods

MUCH AS the police try, Torrevieja’s illegal street sellers, known as ‘Lookie-Lookie’, men can still be found touting their wares all along the city’s seafront.

Offering everything from sunglasses, to watches and even carpets, they generally are just trying to make a living. However, some of them offer ‘genuine fake’ copies of Rolex, D&G, Ray Ban’s and the common DVD copies that are offered all over the city.

On a regular basis these imitations are taken off the streets and crushed. Torrevieja’s Department of Trade encourages people to make purchases in appropriate facilities and to this end has begun distributing leaflets in local shops, in Spanish and English, as a service to remind you that you may be buying an article of poor quality from some street vendors!

Leaflets have been published by the National Association for the Defense of Marques (ANDEMA) and Agustina Esteve, Torrevieja’s Councillor of Commerce said that we now live in a society in which the “rhythm is marked from outside our borders, a global society in imposing tastes and fashions that are not available to all and for this reason, some people turn to counterfeiting goods.”

While the majority of people are well aware that they are purchasing copies and are not in the market to purchase a ‘real’ Rolex thus not depriving these major marques of revenue, Esteve also pointed out that some of the items may be dangerous to your health, especially toys, which have not passed any safety tests.

The Department of Commerce aim is to ensure that items for sale are manufactured in such a fashion so that there are no offences against human rights, such as child exploitation and poor working conditions not covered by labour laws in the current conditions in which we live.

The Leaflet Awareness Campaign will continue throughout the summer and are available from all of Torrevieja’s public offices and satellite Tourist centres.

By Keith Nicol