is this legal - competitors pretending to be many companies

[bobbyspangles]

I've come across this recently, it's annoying but not much you can do about it. Where does your website rank compared to your competitor on Google? I'm not sure how easy it is to do, but you could try and increase your standing so that potential customers see you first.

 

[Stealthploit]

actually it is legal in the US they are doing it with real stores not websites.. like with sunglasses 90% of the stores are the same company under a diffrent name and you dont even know .. so no its not illigal unless you dont pay taxes

 

[dowie]

actually it is legal in the US they are doing it with real stores not websites.. like with sunglasses 90% of the stores are the same company under a diffrent name and you dont even know .. so no its not illigal unless you dont pay taxes

not even just the stores... in that instance it is most of the well known 'quality' brands too... Oakley, Ray-Ban, Arnette, ESS etc.. are all the same company

they also make/design the branded sunglasses for various other brands like Chanel, Armani, Prada, Burberry etc..

 

[unwashed potato!]

I've come across this recently, it's annoying but not much you can do about it. Where does your website rank compared to your competitor on Google? I'm not sure how easy it is to do, but you could try and increase your standing so that potential customers see you first.

we're working to increase them, but this company is very aggressively pushing to get those top spots. they are bigger and have a much higher seo budget so naturally will rank well.

 

[Kosmiche]

my moronic loveable mother just gave her bank details to one of these websites

 

[godinman]

Can these not be reported to google somehow? They're usually pretty good and clamping down on false results.

 

[Clum]

Try and find out if they have paid their fee to register all the business names?

 

[Chuk_Chuk]

not even just the stores... in that instance it is most of the well known 'quality' brands too... Oakley, Ray-Ban, Arnette, ESS etc.. are all the same company

they also make/design the branded sunglasses for various other brands like Chanel, Armani, Prada, Burberry etc..

For anyone that is interested here's video on it

 

[Orionaut]

It is a very old marketing stratagy. The Internet has just made it easier to create multiple brands/companies at little cost.

Here is how it works.

You have two companies, A and B which produce each a more or less identical product at a more or less identical price.

All other thinges being equal, each will get a 50% market share and there is actually very little they can do to change that.

However if company A sells half of its product under a diferent brand then, all other things being equal, it will end up with a 2/3 market share.

Of course it is an arms race, Company B will end up doing the same thing, then A will do it again, and so on.

The classic example of this is washing detergent. Back in the day there were only two detergent manufacturers (Proctor and Gamble and Unilever IIRC) and yet there were dozens of different coloured "Boxes" on the supermarket shelves all containing more or less identical powders.

They were also heavily and very expensively advertised (Hence the term "Soap Operas" to describe popular prime time TV series) to the extent that the advertising load was the biggest component in the final product shelf price

At the end of all this, each manufacturer still only had a 50% market share and the consumer is now paying three or four times as much for the powder than they would have done had it come in a plain white box.

Ho! Humm!

 

[cadmunkey]

It's perfectly legal, I do believe they have to put "ABC trading as XYZ", but I think that's done more to help consumers.

This is correct. I trade under a couple of different names but you have to display the actual registered company name and number on any paperwork/invoice.