Hello everyone,
I recently received some Philips 18W SOX lamps which appear to be counterfeit. Has anyone here ever seen one like this?

I bought it as an original Philips from a well-known Dutch shop.

Here are a few pictures comparing it to real Philips and a no-name China lamp:

Could be a TruHALO lamp?, needs a life test 😎

Did you ask the shop? That's always your first stop. If we're talking about DBL, i think they're not intentionally scamming you, and they appear to be knowledgeable enough to recognize that you got something identical to what they sell straight from china, but for very reasonable prices.

Could it be that Philips had some lamps made in China and branded it as their own? Which is technically not counterfeiting... I have both made in PRC as well as made in Holland HPL-Ns.

Of course the shop themselves could be the victim of counterfeit stuff. The chinese know damn well that if you put Philips on it, that people will pay more, even if it's just for a year or so before we catch on...

Did you ask Signify if they ever produced these things under the Philips brand, or licensed the Philips brand name to another factory? With the halt of production of SOX, they may not be too bothered with trying to protect their copyright, but who knows. In general, big corporations do make some attempt at 3rd parties using their logos and name.

Finally, did you pay for the genuine thing, or did you buy the modern chinese production?

What bothers me is that it even says “Made in UK” on the lamp. I think if it were an original Philips lamp from China, then it would also say China on it?

The production code is 7H - 08/2017

Here is a closer shot of the lamp's print.

I've already contacted the shop, but haven't received a response yet. I'm curious to see what they say.

@AngryHorse:
I will keep the lamp and test it, but I doubt that it will last longer than the usual 4000-6000 hours for the Chinese lamps.

@Laurens:
No, I haven't contacted Signify, but I'm assuming they don't know anything about it.

I bought it as an original Philips and also paid the Philips price for it 

It indeed looks like fake bulbs are in circulation. The same bulbs as from China. I have unfortunately bought them myself (from another company). They have taken back the bulbs and an investigation will be started.

They say made in uk and the date code because that probably just copied the entire stamp of a real Philips bulb.

Very disappointing to see this type of fraud / counterfeiting. Concentrix lucky you had a China lamp on hand to compare! Very interested to hear what the store says so please keep us posted.

Unfortunately the shop has no interest in solving the situation. They claim that the lamps are original Philips and that's it. They are still listed as original in the webshop.

I also received a message from qianshunlighting (manufacturer of SOX Lamps in China).
There is no doubt that these are their lamps and someone else has relabeled them as Philips. They are trying to stop this.

Just in case for reference, what are the things to look for when comparing a genuine NOS Philips or GE bulb and a Chinese one?
Because at first glance, I thought the two pictured were genuine.

I have 3 of these lamps , all are 55w lamps. I think these may be TruHALO lamps but with a fake Philips etch. I currently have one on life test that has been running dusk -dawn since August. https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=2788&pos=0&pid=248657

I also have a picture close up of one of mine somewhere.

These are strange lamps same with the TruHALO branded lamps and even the older snapfast / vision Chinese ones from 2012/13 time. The Philips sox fittings do not like the 55w lamps. And they extinguish but seem fine on other gear sets.

It is very interesting to see an 18w version though, that’s a first for me. Can I ask where did you get this?

I tested a Chinese 18w SOX branded TruHALO in my garden  bulkhead light and got 18 months out of it before it went EOL.

If anyone’s interested I can upload a photo of a close up of one of my fake Philips 55w

@sdsw4 main things to look out for are the colour of the lamps bc cap against genuine ones, the lamps caps as you can see if you check against genuine standard red cap SOX are much deeper in colour . Plus the exhaust end of the lamp is very different and the glass colour, the arc tube is slightly different and the exhaust pip is usually much longer and I find as well that  the getter coating is more shiny!

I don’t necessarily think the lamps themselves are counterfeit but the etches certainly are! These are 100% not uk made and the date code will be wrong too. Very interesting. Are you able to light this lamp?