Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), finally managed to convince the Chinese authorities to start shutting down fake services that copied Apple Stores down to the smallest detail. We are talking about stores that were created to reproduce everything from an Apple Store and in which even the employees wore clothes similar to those of Apple employees, although everything was fake.
The authorities in China closed a large store in Beijing that presented itself as an Apple Store, although it was not, fining the patrons and the amount of 43.000 dollars. The action is extremely surprising in a country where the intellectual property of foreigners has the same value as that of fallen leaves from trees, so Apple must have been involved.
China is full of fake Apple stores, where counterfeit products are sold and Apple products are repaired with counterfeit parts, or collected from broken and disassembled products. In some cases, including the employees of these stores, they thought they were working for Apple, because everything was thought to copy an Apple Store, even the emails with receipts that had the Apple logo.
"Staff at the business wore dark colored T-shirts with a white Apple logo, copying workers at real Apple stores selling electronic products, The Mirror newspaper reported. People paying by scanning their phones on a 3D bar code at the firm would also get a message with the Apple logo and the words Apple service center. The store also sold counterfeit electronic parts, meaning repairs carried out may have made equipment unsafe, the city's industry and commerce department was quoted as saying. Fake products were confiscated."
China has not yet closed any Apple Store or fake Apple service in the country, so this news suggests that Apple has managed to cooperate with the authorities to protect its interests. The closure of this store is still only the beginning, because the authorities are also investigating other stores, so there will be other closures in the next period.
