1.) It appears to me that I bought a fake Sennheiser product. Is that at all possible?

Unfortunately, it is possible. Well-known brands in all industries worldwide increasingly see counterfeits of their products and misuse of their brand occur. Such products and misuse frequently occur on the Internet through website and Auction sites. Counterfeiters profit to a very large extent from copying successful products of well-known brands without investing time and money in the development and marketing of such product and sometimes sacrificing quality in materials and manufacturing. In order to protect you as a consumer from counterfeits, to avoid deception and to sustain the image of the Sennheiser trademark we watch sellers of Sennheiser products and take legal action against infringements when appropriate. We also protect our intellectual property on an international level through patents, trademarks and other registrations.

2.) How can I prevent buying counterfeit Sennheiser Products?

The best way of avoiding the purchase of a fake product is to buy at a Sennheiser authorized dealer. You can find a list of our authorized dealers under "Service" – "Dealer Locator" on this website or click here to be immediately redirect to our dealer database.

3.) What are criteria which help to spot a fake?

Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast set of criteria to help identify a counterfeit product. The skills of the counterfeiters can often make it hard to visually distinguish a counterfeit from the original product. With that said, reliable warning signs include products being offered at an extraordinarily low price and products being offered by persons other than Sennheiser's authorized distributors. Especially when buying on the Internet we suggest looking closely at the above mentioned criteria that would point to a fake product offering. Many products on online-auction platforms are counterfeits, so you cannot be sure that Sennheiser products being advertised as "new" are not counterfeits. If the price offered is very low, ensure that this Internet Dealer is listed as an authorized dealer on our dealer locator.

4.) What is Sennheiser doing concretely?

Where appropriate and permitted by our resources, we will take action to prevent the sale of counterfeit products and stop misuse of our brand. In case of an internet auction site, we contact the owner of the site and ask that the offer be deleted or blocked. If a seller repeatedly sells counterfeits we ask our external lawyers to take legal actions against the seller. In the Far East where many counterfeits originate, we carry out raids in order to diminish the number of counterfeits which could be sold in other parts of the world like Europe and USA.

5.) What is the consequence of having purchased a counterfeit Sennheiser product?

In the event you have bought a counterfeit product please return it to the seller and demand a refund. Counterfeits are often of a very bad quality and the product performance will not meet the high quality you have come to expect from our brand. We cannot service counterfeit products and despite any representation of a warranty you may have received from the seller, counterfeits are not covered by Sennheiser's warranty service.