What to watch for—and what to do
There are many counterfeit products in the marketplace. Bose is aware of sales of counterfeits of most types of Bose headphones, including QuietComfort 35, 25, 20/20i, 3, and 15, QuietContol 30, SoundLink, SoundSport, SoundTrue, SoundTrue Ultra, FreeStyle, IE2, MIE2/MIE2i, SIE2/SIE2i, OE2/OE2i, AE2/AE2i, and Bluetooth® headsets, as well as SoundLink III, II, Mini, Color, Micro, Revolve, and Revolve+, and SoundWear Companion speakers by unauthorized sellers on popular auction and other e-commerce websites, and in flea markets. In some cases, sellers located in China claim to be selling genuine “OEM” headphones, but these products are fake. Typically, these products are sold at lower prices than those offered by Bose and its authorized dealers, but the prices are often not low enough to cause buyers to suspect that the products are counterfeit.
The counterfeit products and their packaging are extremely close in appearance to genuine Bose products, but they do not meet the high standards of performance found in genuine Bose products. Counterfeiters go to great lengths to make their products look like genuine products. They include warranty registration cards in the packaging, and apply serial numbers to the products that copy genuine Bose serial numbers to make them look authentic. It is extremely difficult to distinguish fake products from the real ones. If you believe that you may have purchased counterfeit Bose products, we encourage you to contact Report_Counterfeits@bose.com so that we may be able to assist you in determining whether the product is counterfeit.
Headphones and wireless speakers are the Bose products that we have seen counterfeited most often, but we have also encountered counterfeits of some older speaker models, such as 101 and 301 speaker systems, and the Panaray 502 A loudspeaker. Occasionally, the BOSE trademark is applied to products that are unlike any that we currently produce, such as karaoke microphones. In all cases, your best protection against buying fakes is to purchase from an authorized dealer.