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Ferrari’s infamous for policing its brand with extreme prejudice, to the point where it’ll sue you if you so much as got to a name it wanted first. Now, it’s recruiting rats around the world by offering a reward to people who tell it when a business may be infringing on its copyright. But this doesn’t mean you can call in a stampede on your neighbor’s Ferrari-badged Chevy.
The program was communicated to owners earlier this month through an email posted to forum FerrariChat.com. The Ferrari Anti-Counterfeiting Reward Scheme invites members of the public to speak out “if you have identified a product that infringes on Ferrari Trademarks being sold at a commercial establishment.” That means your local used car dealer that’s misrepresenting a Toyota Celica kit car can now get what’s coming to him.
By and large though, this seems targeted more at fake Ferrari merchandise, which you can find tons of online, or in seedy tourist shops. The wording makes clear this mostly has to be through brick-and-mortar places, with the stuff you see on eBay being a big maybe—you gotta get the seller’s address to report them. Basically, you’re doing legwork for Ferrari’s lawyers.
As for what you get in return, Ferrari’s awfully vague about that. It only promises an unspecified “gift item […] while stocks last.” Ferrari also says that if you don’t give enough info, or if it already got a report about the seller you turned in, or for any reason it makes up, it doesn’t have to fulfill its end of the bargain.
And before you get any ideas, no, you can’t put a fake Ferrari ballcap on sale yourself to get a free teddy bear. Or $10 in gift store credit, or whatever you get. Maybe it’ll be a lapel pin. Be grateful, it has a retail value of $549.99.
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