How to Identify Counterfeit Schneider Electric Equipment

In countries without a Schneider Electric authorized distributor, people rely on the local seller’s claim that the equipment (whether an MCB, MPCB, MMCB, or any other Schneider device) is genuine. I researched in my country, Iran, and here is the result.

On Lalehzar Street, the main market for electrical equipment in Iran, many stores claim they are an authorized distributor or even an authorized partner of Schneider Electric company, which is untrue. Because of the US sanctions, from around 2020, Schneider Electric suspended its activities in Iran.

I don’t want to explain the entire history of Schneider activity in Iran, but a brief one can help. It appears that in 1976 there was an authorized distributor of “Telemecanique” in Iran. There was also an authorized distributor of “Merlin Gerin” in Iran. But after the merger of those two companies into Schneider in 1988 and 1992, they haven’t changed their name, and “Iran Telemecanique” and “Iran Switch” are active now (here and here), but I don’t know what they do or manufacture. All things aside, there was an official Schneider Electric Partner in Iran called “Kara Electric Pooya” or “Altech Electric”; according to their website (Archive), they were a partner from 1975, and they manufactured Multi9 C60N in Karaj city. They even manufactured Anya Series switches and sockets in 2011. After the 2020 sanctions, they changed their name to Altech Electric. I think this was because of legal issues.

On their website, they stated that by not changing the production line and molds, they continue to manufacture MCBs and other electrical devices, but with a new name of “Spectre“

As you can see, their product is identical to Schneider products. you can see inside their manufacture (mega.nz)

There are a few points in this video: They are no longer partnered with Schneider, but they use the Schneider brand almost everywhere. In Lalehzar Street, there are many stores with the Schneider logo, and they even changed the decor to green. If you ask sellers on that street whether this product is genuine, there is an expression among them that says, “It is Karaj’s Schneider.” So they know these are not genuine and are made in Karaj. Now think about it: the “Spectre” which “Altech Electric” makes is almost identical to Schneider products. What if, at the end of the production line, they change Spectre to Schneider?

By the way, “Iran Switch” also has a production line in Karaj! I emphasize this because the market is flooded with Schneider. There are counterfeit Siemens and Hyundai products too, but Schneider has by far the most counterfeit products in the market.

I think those production lines are limited to producing MCBs, RCBOs, or even MPCBs. So for ACBs and other advanced devices, they should be imported from China. Of course, Schneider has authorized distributors and partners in China, and they can’t easily make counterfeit products in there, but some small Chinese manufacturers may produce these devices without the Schneider brand. However, as requested by those sellers, they produce them without a brand, and sellers put the Schneider brand on them here in Iran.

How to Identify Counterfeit Schneider Electric Equipment

Now, with all that history, we can go through the main subject.

From 2025, there is a QR code on every Schneider device. If you install the Schneider app called “MySchneider” on your phone, you can scan those barcodes and go straight to the product page. If the product is genuine, there is a serial number on the page that must match the serial number on the product. Remember, the QR code is on the front of the product, not on its package or the product’s sides.

Let’s see some examples:

Open the picture above and scan it like i did:

You can see the serial number is 0202…..660001. This number is an exact match with the number on the back of the product.

There is a VOID sticker with the Schneider logo on it. Don’t judge based on that; they can easily fake that sticker.

You can say someone can copy a genuine serial number and put it on many devices. Still, I heard that if many scans around the world go to one serial number, Schneider marks that product with its serial number as suspicious of being counterfeit. I haven’t seen that, and I can’t say whether it is true or not.

If you scan that QR code on the front of product, you will see something like this:

There is a serial number with YY250….960 on the products page. This serial number does not match those pictures. By the way, the serial number is on the product button. I took those pictures from eBay, and the seller may took those pictures from different products that were in the same box, just like the picture below:

Now let’s see this product too:

Scan it and you can see something like this:

Like before, I think this product comes from a batch; hence, the serial number is very close but doesn’t match.

Note: Some counterfeit products have these QR codes on them, but they often link to go2se.com. This is the Schneider Electric website, but at the end of the URL it should be something more to get you the serial number. There are counterfeit products that take you to the product page, like this, but they don’t contain the serial number, and the page doesn’t show you one. So, the conclusion is that the QR code must take you to the product page and show the serial number that matches the product; anything other than that is fake.