HELSINKI, Finland-Following numerous reports of exploding batteries in Nokia Corp. phones-which the company continues to blame on unsafe, low-quality counterfeit products-Nokia said it has so far seized and destroyed more than 5 million counterfeit batteries this year.
The company said it most recently witnessed raids in Belgium, the United Kingdom and other countries in the European Union, giving authorities leads on a counterfeit network.
“I want to stress that consumer safety is our top concern,” said Janne Jormalainen, Nokia’s vice president of mobile enhancements. “We believe consumers are unknowingly being fooled into buying unsafe, low-quality batteries and we are actively taking measures to combat the illegal counterfeit operation at the root of this problem.”
Nokia also said Test-Aankoop, a Belgian consumer group, acknowledged its recent test results-which led to an announcement that Nokia batteries were unsafe-were “most probably unreliable” due to the inclusion of counterfeit batteries in their test sample. Nokia said Test-Aankoop has agreed to a new, independent test of batteries.
Nokia said it will engage in aggressive, regional anti-counterfeit measures.
