When we talk about watch brands what immediately comes to mind is the purchase of used Rolex for personal use. A product with a counterfeit brand does not constitute receiving stolen goods but rather an administrative offence. The Supreme Court reiterated this with sentence 42106/12. A man is accused of attempted receiving stolen goods for having ordered two watches with a counterfeit brand. The court of first instance declares the fact not foreseen by law as a crime, while the Judges of Appeal declare the prescribed crime.
The accused then appeals to the Supreme Court deducing the incorrect application of the criminal law in relation to the lack of acquittal as well as the contradictory nature of the reasoning, given the confusion made between awareness of the illicit origin of the goods and awareness of the non-originality of the brand.
Crime or administrative offence? The appeal, according to the Ermellini, deserves to be accepted: referring to a recent ruling of the United Sections (n. 22225/12), they reiterate that the final purchaser of a product with a counterfeit trademark, or in any case of origin and provenance different from the one indicated is not liable for receiving stolen goods, but rather for the administrative offense envisaged by the Legislative Decree. n.32 of 2005 as amended by law n.99 of 2009.
The legitimacy judges in fact believe that this rule has a specialized nature with respect to the crime in question. Who is the final buyer. It should then be specified that according to the jurisprudence of the Court, the final purchaser must be understood as "one who does not participate in any way in the chain of production or distribution and diffusion of counterfeit products, but limits himself to purchasing them for personal use".
Comparing regulations. Furthermore, the proposed interpretative solution is consistent with the provisions of the legislation on the purchase of audiovisual, phonographic, IT or multimedia supports that do not comply with legal requirements: in this case too, in fact, the purchase for exclusively personal use constitutes an administrative offence. For these reasons, the Board annuls the contested sentence without postponement: the fact is not foreseen by law as a crime, but it is a mere administrative offense.
How to understand if a Rolex is original or fake? Check the serial number When I buy Rolex watches, I know that the models I evaluate may be fakes. Among the first observations I make to understand if a Rolex is original is checking the serial number: the Rolex serial number, also called serial, is engraved deep between the two hourly lugs. The lines are thin and based on the years of construction of the specimen also varies the writing font. The writing characters are obviously different from the serial number of a fake Rolex, which is often imprecise and not consistent with the period of construction of the watch. The reason is simple: the engraving is performed with different tools from the parent company. Do you want to remove any doubts?
Then you can try contacting the customer service number of the Rolex company (or sending an email) indicating the reference and serial number of the watch. In this way you can find out if the serial number and the reference of your watch match, obtaining a good indicator if it is fake or original. But checking the Rolex serial number is not the only evaluation to be made, on the contrary: sometimes counterfeit watches are very precise and the engraving done really well. Let's move on to the second step: checking the lens for magnifying the date, for watches that have a date display (excluding the model that has the date but not the lens).
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