Apple suing supplier of counterfeit Apple products on Amazon

Apple Inc is taking a supplier of power adapters and charging cables to court, over allegations of counterfeiting the Apple brand and selling products on Amazon.com Inc. and Groupon Inc.

Apple is, however, not suing Amazon or Groupon.

The iPhone maker this week filed documents in federal court seeking an injunction to block Mobile Star LLC from selling the Apple counterfeit products. A hearing is set for 7 December in US District Court in San Francisco. Apple is also seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each registered copyright infringement and up to $2 million per counterfeit mark per type of product sold by Mobile Star, and a jury trial, the lawsuit said.

''Counterfeit Apple products pose an immediate risk to public safety. Consumers who have been duped into buying them have experienced and reported serious  problems such as overheating and fire,'' Apple stated in the suit.

Amazon customers had become wary of many of the products that claimed to be 'original' or 'genuine' Apple products such as charging cables and earbuds, but which were, in fact, counterfeits.

Some of the cables were on offer for as little as $8 a pair while Apple's authentic cables sold for $25.

Thousands of bad reviews in Amazon stating the cables were fakes and cheap copies of these 'Apple' chargers.

But the prospect of picking up five chargers for the price of one at Apple had lured many to buy the fakes.

The fake items carried the word "Genuine" in Amazon's store and the items were being fulfilled by Amazon. Many shoppers were encouraged to buy the items on those counts.

While the chargers had been taken off, earbuds or earpods continued to be advertised as "Genuine", "Authentic", and "Original" Apple products.