Hansgrohe Group Scores Victory Against Product Piracy

Hansgrohe Busts Counterfeiting Network in China – Fake AXOR Faucet Achieves Second Place at Plagiarius Award Ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany

Schiltach/Frankfurt, February 2026. At the Ambiente trade fair, a copy of the “AXOR MyEdition” faucet achieved second place at the Plagiarius award ceremony. In 2025, the Hansgrohe Group worked closely with the Chinese authorities to uncover a professionally organized counterfeiting network. The counterfeiters had copied products under the internationally protected company brands “hansgrohe” and “AXOR” and sold them online at low prices. The counterfeit faucet was one of the products seized during the operation.

Product Piracy: Industry Risk

“Counterfeit sanitary products are a safety risk. Inferior materials can release harmful substances or heavy metals into the water. At the same time, our industry suffers considerable economic damage,” says Carmen Vetter, Team Lead Intellectual Property Rights at Hansgrohe Group. For the bathroom and kitchen specialist from the Black Forest, this damage is estimated to amount to five to ten percent of global sales.

Counterfeit products appeared on a large scale as early as the launch of the successful hansgrohe Raindance shower line in the early 2000s. At that time, authorities confiscated container loads of counterfeit goods from China, and the company resorted to high-profile destruction campaigns using steamrollers and shredders. Even today, customs inspections of the trade fair booths of non-European suppliers at the ISH sanitary fair still lead to numerous seizures. “Today, counterfeiters mainly work on a small-batch, order-based basis. The goods are sold via online platforms or delivered directly to the end consumer, which makes them difficult to track,” explains Carmen Vetter.

Successful Raid After Months of Investigation

In China, Hansgrohe commissioned undercover partners to locate the network's warehouses. The Kaiping Public Security Bureau then carried out a raid on two counterfeiters' hideouts and warehouses in Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province with sufficient evidence. The authorities confiscated counterfeit goods, including those from other international sanitaryware manufacturers, arrested three key individuals, and initiated criminal proceedings. The value of the goods seized, comparable to original hansgrohe and AXOR products, was around €360,000.

As a member of the Action Group Against Product and Brand Piracy (APM), the Hansgrohe Group is in regular contact with other companies in the industry. Around 95 percent of counterfeit Hansgrohe products originate in China. The market is both a place of production and a place of sale. Platforms such as Taobao and WeChat offer counterfeiters reach, ease of transaction, and anonymity. The legal situation is complex. Counterfeiters use AI tools to create marketing content that closely resembles the original, as well as their own IP registrations to block original manufacturers. Many platforms do not have sufficient mechanisms in place to prevent IP infringements or do not provide adequate support to the original manufacturer.

New Anti-Counterfeiting Label for Hansgrohe Customers in China

Hansgrohe now provides additional protection for its customers in China with a counterfeit-proof label in the form of a unique QR code for each individual product. Customers will be able to verify and register their purchased products via an app.

Raids and investigations such as those in China are relatively rare in Germany. “Here, it's currently more a case of patent infringements, whereby it's often possible to reach an out-of-court settlement with the other party,” says Carmen Vetter. Ultimately, no matter where in the world, it's about protecting the company's innovations from counterfeiting, protecting itself from loss of revenue and reputation, and protecting its customers from potential damage. “Extremely cheap offers are always a warning sign,” advises Carmen Vetter. “Sanitary products should only be purchased from authorized dealers. We will never be able to completely prevent product piracy. But we will continue to take consistent action against it, focusing on education and new digital tools for finding suspicious online offers or for verification via QR code and app.”

About the Hansgrohe Group – Setting the Beat of Water. Since 1901.

With its brands AXOR and hansgrohe, the Hansgrohe Group, based in Schiltach/Southern Germany, enjoys a reputation as a leader in innovation, design and quality within the bath and kitchen industry. Founded in 1901 in the Black Forest, the company gives water form and function with its faucets, showerheads and shower systems. In combination with sanitary ceramics and bathroom furniture, the company offers individual design options from a single source for holistic bathroom experiences. The 124-year history of the company is marked by innovations, such as the first hand-held shower with multiple spray types, the first pull-out kitchen faucet, and the first wall bar to hold a hand-held shower.The company holds more than 23,000 active property rights. The Hansgrohe Group stands for long-lasting quality products and for responsibility towards people and the environment. Sustainable production of resource-conserving products is central to the company’s business activities around the globe. By developing innovative technologies for faucets and showers, Hansgrohe achieves the greatest possible effect on protecting water as a resource and limiting and adapting to climate change during the usage phase of its products. As part of its consistent sustainability strategy, Hansgrohe is equipping all water-bearing products exclusively with water-saving technologies by 2030 within its "ECO 2030" initiative. With 35 subsidiaries and 22 sales offices supplying products in more than 145 countries, the globally active company in the sanitary industry is a reliable partner to its customers in all regions of the world. The Hansgrohe Group, its brands and products have won numerous awards, including more than 800 design prizes since 1974. The products of the Hansgrohe Group are found around the world: on renowned cruise ships, in luxurious 5-star and boutique hotels, in international metropolitan cities, in extraordinary spas, exclusive bathrooms of lodges and luxury villas, public facilities, as well as in countless private homes. The Hansgrohe Group’s high quality standards are ensured by eight wholly-owned production facilities: four in Germany, one each in France, in Serbia, the United States and China. In 2024, the Hansgrohe Group generated a turnover of EUR 1.387 billion. It employs around 5,600 people worldwide, about 60 percent of whom work in Germany.