Petzl has issued a warning regarding potentially dangerous Chinese counterfeit Petzl PPE products on the market. Pirated gear is not new phenomenon for Petzl. Usually it is an obviously inferior product with the Petzl logo applied.
But this is the first time Petzl have discovered PPE hardware so faithfully reproducing the original product it is almost impossible to spot the difference. Petzl say "an end-user will not be able to tell the difference between these counterfeits and authentic Petzl products".
Petzl product design, color, markings and even the smallest details like batch numbers and the accurate replication of the instructions for use and the packaging will make it extremely difficult to identify the potentially dangerous product.
And faulty they are… the counterfeit Croll fails at 4kN (the requirement is 6kN) and the Attache breaks on its major axis at 13kN (the requirement is 20kN).
See the Petzl website for more details.
