Four people were sentenced to jail for producing and selling counterfeit Dyson hair dryers, the Pudong New Area People’s Court said yesterday. Sentences ranged from 44 months to six years.

The ruling is part of Dyson’s first domestic anti-counterfeiting case. To date, 35 people have been tried in this case since May, the court said. Members of this group have been sentenced to between 18 months and six years, and fined 10.08 million yuan (US$1.4 million) in total, according to the court.

Dyson’s hair drying equipment was approved for use in China in 2010. In 2018, the brand reported to Shanghai police that many fake versions of its hair dryers were being sold online in China.

The four people convicted yesterday were all found guilty.

In April 2018, two men, surnamed Fang and Xie, established a company in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and employed a man surnamed Huang as their shop manager. Factories for the company making the fake hair dryers were opened in Shenzhen and Huizhou, also in Guangdong, with over 30 workers and production lines for the knockoff products. A man surnamed Yang was put in charge of sales, the court said.

The market price of an authentic Dyson hair dyer should be 2,990 yuan, but the fakes were sold for just 700 yuan, the court said. The fakes were said to cost as little as 120 yuan to manufacture.

In December 2018, police arrested the four in Huizhou. They also found 277 fake hair dyers, the court said.

According to investigators, Fang and Xie’s company sold 19,000 fake Dyson hair dyers, with sales amounting to over 13.5 million yuan. Based on the money involved, criminal motive, economic damage and social risk, the four were not eligible for leniency, the court said.

An earlier report said that 36 suspects related to the company were arrested in January last year. Police said the suspects used professionals to study and reproduce authentic Dyson hair dryers.

Guo Lang, president of Dyson China, said yesterday the fake products have affected the firm’s operation and infringe upon consumers’ rights and interests.