The Brembo App that checks if products are original or not

10/12/2021

Here’s the real solution for checking if a Brembo product is 100% original.

Brembo, one word that means so much. Thanks to more than 500 world championships won by cars and motorbikes with Brembo brake components and their use on the most iconic of road supercars, every year millions of enthusiasts choose to buy Brembo products.

The flip side to Brembo’s success is, as with other global brands, the spread of counterfeit products produced and put on the market by inexperienced and dishonest manufacturers.

The counterfeiting of Brembo brake systems, as with many products made by the most iconic brands, is unfortunately something that is becoming more and more widespread. In this case, it is something that is potentially much more dangerous because it regards the performance of active safety systems which are vital to the safety of drivers, passengers and other road users.

Almost all the Brembo brake components made by counterfeiters imitate the aesthetic look which is often limited to affixing the Brembo brand to their own products. Indeed, these products are totally unable to reproduce the quality and performance of Brembo products.

Often unwary buyers only notice that they have been a victim of fraud when they start to use these products and cannot return the goods because the seller has disappeared in the meantime. As well as being a waste of money, these fakes also pose a physical risk because poor quality brakes put the safety of the driver, passengers and road users in general at risk.

However, all this is now a thing of the past because Brembo has devised an innovative solution in the form of an APP, Brembo Check (available for both IOS and Android), which detects fake products and ensures that customers are 100% certain they are buying an original product.

This is a new approach which guarantees that customers receive a more secure buying experience with no risk of buying fake products. A quick tool which is foolproof and easy to use.

How does it work?

When you buy a Brembo product, once you have installed Brembo Check on your mobile device, all you have to do is use your smartphone to scan the unique QR Code on the label which can easily be found on the purchased component or the box to know if the Brembo product is original or not.

To prevent tampering, the label is made using a printing and application procedure which prevents it from being removed; if you try to remove it, you damage the QR Code making it unusable. In this way, the label cannot be detached and cannot be affixed to any other products other than the original one.

The QR code can also be registered only once as a further guarantee of originality to the buyer, who should not accept certificates of authenticity printed by dealers or third parties. The buyer plays an active part in checking the product using the Brembo Check app and if the product is original, can register it by entering their e-mail address in order to receive a certificate of authenticity.

If a buyer discovers that the product QR Code has already been registered, they must contact their local Brembo dealer as soon as possible. The dealer will immediately act to resolve any doubts regarding the product’s authenticity.

Just one click is sufficient: once you have installed Brembo Check on your mobile device, all you have to do is use your smartphone to scan the unique QR Code on the new product’s label. This can be found on the purchased component or the box it is in and in just one second, you will find out if the Brembo product is original or not.

There is no risk of tampering because the printing and application procedure used prevents the label from being removed.

Be wary of codes that have already been checked (especially if checked several times) 

The fact that the QR code can only be registered once offers a further guarantee. If the product is original, you can simply register it making sure you have entered your e-mail address correctly so that Brembo Check can directly send you the certificate of authenticity. All this takes place only when registered the product which is only allowed once. Subsequent scanning of the QR code will indicate that the product has been registered.

If a buyer discovers that the product QR Code has already been registered in the database, they must contact their local Brembo dealer as soon as possible who will resolve any doubts regarding the product’s authenticity immediately.

Other certificates of authenticity are worthless and Brembo strongly advises customers not to accept them because they do not guarantee the originality of the product or that the component has been fitted on another vehicle, i.e. that it is a used product.

By adopting this procedure, fake brake components marked as Brembo can be easily and instantly spotted whereas anyone who has bought an original product can be 100% certain they have bought a genuine one.

What if the product doesn’t have a QR code, but has an anti-counterfeiting scratch card?

Some original Brembo products which were already in stock in the distribution chain when the Brembo Check app was launched may not have a QR code but have an anti-counterfeiting scratch card.

Here we must be very careful. Five years ago, Brembo had already introduced an anti-counterfeit system: since then, all the components in the UPGRADE line destined for the performance aftermarket have been assigned a special anti-counterfeit card kept in a sealed box.

Customers have to scratch off the silver strip on the card to display a unique 6-figure number which, when entered into the site www.original.brembo.com , certifies that the product is original.

As time goes by and product stocks are depleted, the cards will become increasingly more rare and the QR Code and the Brembo Check App will be the only way to check whether a Brembo product is original or not.

The exception that proves the rule

The racing products for racing professionals and the Serie Oro motorcycle items (brake discs and pads), on the other hand, do not have a QR Code.

These items do not have an anti-counterfeit scratch card either because they are both special types of product: in the first case, they are solutions who those who are involved in racing which are so sophisticated that they are impossible for counterfeiters to replicate because of their lack of technological know-how. In the latter case, these are products with a value and cost which is much lower than the rest of the system and therefore prevents the risk of fake products.

Why fake products are dangerous

Every Brembo brake component is subjected to a stringent series of tests which involve tests on static test benches, test cycles on dynamic test benches, and on-road tests: three steps which are required to test the brake systems in conditions which are very similar to the real ones.

To meet all these requirements, Brembo adopts a systemic approach to studying how the various components fit together to ensure the greatest reliability, comfort, and durability of brakes in relation to the weight, power, and mechanical characteristics of the vehicle. A non-original brake component may show major performance limits under certain conditions or start to malfunction over a period of time: tests performed on fake products which have been confiscated have shown reduced braking efficiency and in some cases, components have actually fallen apart. Safety is a serious matter.

Protect yourself from fake products, do it for your own good.