The Brick Show exposes fake LEGO at NYCC

If they're not claiming the product is Lego then it's not quite the same as selling a fake Gucci bag. Well, as a Lego fan, I think it is but the law wouldn't. I'm surprised about the organisers allowing this however, particularly as I imagine Lego is a fairly big draw for them, can't imagine they'd like them to switch to another Con instead.

If they're not claiming to be, specifically, 'LEGO' products, then LEGO are in a difficult position stopping them. Surely the main legal issue is that they're producing trademarked character properties without the appropriate license, in which case it's for the comic character rights holders to shut them down. Why not speak to them? I imagine DC and Marvel have a bigger presence and a lot more clout at a COMIC con than LEGO do.

Knockoffs are legal as long the sellers are absolutely clear its not Lego brand. As soon as they make it ambiguous or try to sell it as Lego it becomes illegal. There's not really a middle ground, if theres any doubt its counterfeiting. The stands in the video said Lego compatible which is reasonably clear its not Lego.

I'd be a lot more worried about people trying to pass it off on bricklink. I feel brinklink and parts sellers are the ones who need to do something, I've already been disappointed a few times I don't want to have to start reporting sellers for counterfeiting.

I wouldn't mind to get that Dilophosaurus as the set is no longer available it seems.

From the video, they did state there were people that had up "Lego" signs on the counterfeits.
There is the question of producing trademarked characters.

Now, the one thing I did not necessarily see there were Friends minifigs. Lego did go after MegaBlok for infringing and creating characters similar to Friends. My presumption is that they have a stronger IP case on those than on just a generic minfig form. If they were selling Friend style minfigs, then I suspect Lego would have a very strong case, but not necessarily just on minfigs beyond licensing violations.

I thought the video was good, though, and it does help buyers know to watch.

'LEGO has an official presence at the event.' Correct. They ought to know what's going on, because if they were to go there, they would check round other booths to see what's being sold, and for this to slip through their radar is incredible. They would have looked carefully at any construction toy, and so how did this stay in the place? A company (TLG) is selling what they came up with, and this evil junk-making company comes up and copies it. If I were in charge of the company, and mine was selling something at an event, I'd get a trusted employee to snoop round for clones. It was bad before, but it's getting worse and worse now. Poor American FOLs...

If you read the Lego copyright statement, it seems as if they run into problems do to varying regulations between different countries. They clearly have copyrighted not just the name Lego but also the very design of their products. However do to practically no regulations in countries like China and Certain South American Countries it would be easy to get around this in those countries. However selling these items in the US would probably be a copyright infringement due to US copyright laws. They have a perfectly sound legal case to shut down those booths!

As the guy said, some of the stalls were advertising it as LEGO, which is just plain illegal. However, my main problem is the fact that they are still essentially copies. Someone at LEGO designed those characters. Most of the minifigures are also based on comic book/movie characters, which were created by someone, and are trademarked/copyrighted, and so it is still illegal.
People who buy these say they do because it is cheaper, but you are still handing your money to someone who doesn't deserve it, and that is why I am very much against this.
However, although I am not a collector of minifigures (not anymore anyway), I do feel for those who do collect, as LEGO often make it very difficult to obtain certain figures. I understand that this is sometimes the thrill of collecting for many people, however for example I used to have all of the Collectable Minifigures, but when Mr Gold came out with Series 10 I realised it was going to be next to impossible to collect all of the minifigures without paying a significant sum [which seriously just isn't worth it for such a small piece of plastic], and with that I could not see the point anymore, quit the collecting and sold all of my 160 minifigures - LEGO lost a regular customer of the Collectable Minifigure series.

Huw, I had to chuckle as I watched the video partly to see what you didn't like about the first twenty seconds.

I don't know.
While I would never buy knock off figures, and would certainly rather have people buy the real thing. that said... I know LEGO has to work with licences on what they can and cannot produce, and they cannot do everything that consumers want (Individual Star Wars figures come to mind). Still, I would hope LEGO would work on both fronts on trying to prevent duplicates that give the appearance of being the genuine LEGO but are not AND try to have fewer instances of you have to spend several hundred dollars just to get all the minifigures, especially when you do not care for the sets much, and the sets have such a limited run. I understand LEGO can't do this in all cases, and they are free to run how they want to, but there would not be such a demand for the knock off product if what people wanted was easier to obtain through LEGO themselves.

I have no problem with compatible building systems, I just choose not to buy those. Some of these other brands have quite succesful and different product lines.

I do have a problem when they make things look just like official Lego sets and figs. That just a rip-off and trying to benefit from someone else's work without giving back. What an ironic lack of creativity...

Even sadder, there obviuosly is a market for this. Why do 'we' let ourselves be treated like this to save a few bucks.

Supply and Demand.

Lego creates artificial scarcity and those that can't afford or can't find the minifigures on their want lists will go elsewhere.

Though informative, unfortunately there really isn't anything that can be done. For as long as there have been brand names there have been knock offs. It does worry me though when it comes to buying from the secondary market; again there will be sellers looking to profit from fakes.

Lego should commission Hacksaw to go around the various CONs with his 2x4 attacking displays of fake Lego.

Wow! How stupid can you be and still breathe? Counterfeit is NEVER good. Glad to see others are taking a stand against it.

It's really scary when you think about it, eventually you won't even know if it's real or not. Good job to the BRICK SHOW and everyone else who reports or has reported fake LEGO

Funnily enough though, one of the clone brands produced a Heath Ledger Joker way before the release of the Tumbler. Doesn't get away from the fact that there are issues with licensing from DC but some clone brands have come up with some very good original designs.

Oh, God...

People are selling knockoffs of copyrighted characters as actual LEGO at a comic con?! Just how did this slip under their radar?

Vendors at NYCC having been selling knock off figures for years now, even when Lego had a bigger presence at the convention.

I've never noticed counterfeit Star Wars figures before.

If they start to make them, i'd imagine Disney would have them on lockdown the second they hit customs, Marvel and DC don't seem bothered enough to stop them.

I guess that if LEGO would not manufactured bricks and minifigs in China problem with knockoffs would be smaller.
I'm not buying knockoffs. However, LEGO scarcity policy is crazy. And I understand why somebody is buying knockoff minifig if original is not available, or is highly overpriced. For example - Chicken Guy or Bunny Guy minifigures. I saw such counterfeits.

It is more worrisome as a collector to know if you are getting the real deal or not. You have to know reputable sellers on eBay. You'd hope Bricklink sellers wouldn't fall for it, but not all LEGO sellers are AFOLs, unfortunately.

I do own some knock offs, and while it was neat to get the character LEGO would never produce, the quality wasn't there. It was worse than the worst LEGO figures I have (And I have a few really bad quality official figures too). Although, they do seem to be getting better (knock offs, that is..not sure about LEGO ever improving their quality)

I own a few fake Iron Men, because, like Sethro3 said, it's nice to have the figures that Lego wouldn't make, but the quality of Lego just isn't there.

No, it is only important that they keep images without stamp hidden, or lawyers are gonna swarm on you.

There are always sellers of knockoff minifigs at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo they have here in Australia. Really rustles my jimmies.

There is one thing that hasn't been mentioned. I hadn't previously considered the licencing infringements, which if this is true, and these are cheap knock-offs as opposed to legitimate competitor brands, it's infinitely more likely that these products won't have met the relevant safety regulations and could be made out of any old toxic crap. You cannot expect the various conventions to check every product being sold, but if concerns are raised about a particular stall then they should take a look or else be held equally liable if a product proves hazardous.

LEGO is in a difficult position here. Yes, this clone garbage is hurting their sales, but if LEGO were to publicly start fighting this, they might look like the bad guys and lose more sales. As the Stephen said, some people don't care if it's LEGO or not, if it's garbage or not, or if its toxic or not- they just care about their wallets.

Leave the licensing agreements out of this. These huge companies have lawyers and investigators to follow up on these issues. Whether it is Lego, Disney, or anyone else.

These vendors need to be ethical humans, and sell the product they are representing they are selling. The "Fits with Lego" sign is an example of adequate disclosure. I wouldn't stop at that booth myself, other than to give a quick cursory glance and laugh at the horrible quality.

I can't tell from the video, how legitimate the figs looked. In general, they looked to be of high quality. I would definitely be upset to find out I bought lead-based, painted figs. Our government however, needs to oversee such safety concerns on all imported merchandise.

Now if these vendors had signs up, which said "figs are not authentic LEGO", I would look at them, see the faults, and probably walk away.

I am curious how many of these vendors are aware they are selling knock-offs. Did they drop $1000 or more into stock, and then find out at the con they are selling fakes? If you dropped $1000 in to merchandise, would you just throw the figs in the trash, or would you keep selling them? I would like to think I would keep selling them, and put up a sign that they were not legitimate Lego.

Being the average, selfish human, I would probably just sell them and honestly answer only direct questions about their authenticity. What would you do?

LEGO follows a lot, A LOT of policies and rules that they have for a reason when it comes to treating the polymers and the raw plastic they use. Thats what gives LEGO, not only the quality - but the real value of the product. I mean lets face it, it's not really about licence and knockoffs and cheap products - because thats just the smaller picture. It's really way bigger than that...

- If we as consumers buy fake Lego that is created in a non-protected environment. What are we saying to the world? Its our responsibility to make sure that we pay the price for the products we buy. Not only by the product we hold in our hands, but about HOW it came to be there.

LEGO is a huge company that know how to handle these factors, a small chinese knockoff doesn't. THATS the real issue here. Thats what needs to be taken care of. The BIG picture...

One of the vendors had a lego sign.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7Gyc-YwhJjVOFlUUmFCbHNRVms

I started hearing about Knockoff LEGOs about a year ago. This piqued my interest being that some figures were not produced by LEGO. So, I bought a few and can say that even though this is a big problem, some of the figures are of excellent quality. So, my opinion? Have LEGO go "undercover" to see what figures are most commonly bought and then jump for those specific licenses. I would love to see a REAL LEGO Galactus. ;)

More for the custom Lego Minifigures and very rarely get a lower quality one, but if the minifigure is available via Lego then would rather have that one

Not as interesting a video as the headline lead me to believe. No-one shown appeared to be saying that their product was LEGO. We all know that clone brands and blatant copies exist (shock/horror), so where's the news in this?

I got some knockoff figures only for some figures that I will never be able to afford to get made by Lego. Some Sdcc exclusives are going for $200+ a figure on EBay. So do I spend $200 on one figure or a couple of bucks to get one just like it. I rather have the real deal but Lego needs to make these available to the public and make the packaging or something exclusive to the Comic Con.

Going to agree with above post about supply/demand created by TLG. I would have loved to buy the SDCC Unikitty but not at the going rates on the secondary market. Have yet to buy any knockoffs but the temptation is certainly there, despite the oft-cited lead paint FUD.

i must say some of those figures look promising although i did see the flash from the tv series on the video.

no don't even think about that me

@deephorse see picture posted above your comment.

I was at a convention in Minneapolis last year and there was a booth selling these. At first I thought they were legit and then I looked even closer and saw they had rounded legs and different hands. I even took pictures.

I don't like these things or people who sell 'em. Good job to TBS for doing this.

Surprising video. It's common knowledge these things have been plaguing the online shops for years now, but I do find it shocking how people could sell these at conventions. Flat out lying directly to people. Shame! Shame I say!

I absolutely hate knock offs, they're poor quality and sometimes filled with dangerous chemicals and fillers... Things you don't want around children or adults!! Cheap or not this only damages Lego long term when sales drop and our loved Lego is replaced with Chinese knock offs.. It's not good, Lego and the con organisers should get it removed from the shows..

@ The Brick Show.
What do you think the best way to combat this would be?

What perhaps surprises me the most is that organisers like the New York Comic Con are allowing these people to get booths and sell this counterfeit junk there. If LEGO can't directly go after these knockoff sellers because of loopholes, they should at the very least put pressure on con organisers and threaten to skip their cons until they clean up their act.

@ 1265. The major difference there is only a select very few LEGO parts are made in China, and they have high quality standards, unlike the clone brands.

So has anyone ever tested their clone fig for lead paint or "dangerous chemicals and fillers"? How do the chemicals compare to what Lego was using 35 years ago?

As an aside, how much off-gassing is my Lego room producing and should I be worried about my Lego, or just assume it is safe, just as so many people assume the clone are automatically unsafe.

I have suspicions that the knock off minifigure booths hurt The Brick Shows sales at the NYCC. They are after all scalpers with their marked up prices.
I too would buy the knockoff deadpool for $5 bucks or preferably $1.00 on EBAY, it's only plastic after all.
Prime ABS current cost $.90/lb. and $1.80 to make a pound of plastic bricks.
They both use the same ABS plastic and inks for pad printing.
The humorous part of this article is hearing a scalper cry wolf.

Hushed and Deadeye Dave hit the nail on the head.

I'd love to see actual chemical tests before instantly deeming something unsafe.

Selling at conventions with a Lego brand clearly on the side booth, and with figures very similar to what Lego produce, is just plain dodgy and should be stopped.

If people want to pay cheaper for a similar product, I have no issue with that, as long as it is not and never claimed to be Lego - ie a plastic indent that is obviously not using Lego in any way.
People certainly have the right to buy that stuff and I have the same right not to end up with it. But no-one should have the right to claim it is Lego or steal designers ideas.

The one thing I'd say about harping on the knock-offs being from China (and concerns about production/safety), all the actual LEGO CMFs are now made in China, look at the package. It p-ss-s me off to no end, since I don't trust Chinese manufacturing, even if LEGO is claiming they're trying to maintain standards.

So they've saved manufacturing costs by going to China but still charge $4 a minifig, they're creating the copycat market themselves at this point.

As a trader in Lego who attends a lot of Cons here in the UK, I have spoken with organisers of events where these people sell their fake goods and asked them to do something about it and the response I generally get from the organisers is that they are not advertising it as lego so they can't do anything about it!!! Some of my customers are , like me loyal to lego but many people don't even realise they are buying fake.
I have spoken to several dealers over the last few months who all say that their sales have been affected by this phenomenon but what can we do if even Lego don't seem that bothered.
I have been at a car boot sale where trading standards have swooped on stalls selling fake CDs and DVDs why aren't hey doing the same with this rubbish?

There needs to be a clamp down by auction sites such as eBay. Do a search for Star Wars or Super Heroes minifigs and the number of listings that appear with fake minifigs with a FREE genuine LEGO brick is incredulous and also very frustrating. I've given up trying to buy loose minifigs on eBay - if there's an old minifig I'm after I buy the full sealed set now. I can imagine there's a lot of parents unknowingly buying this junk for their children

@ coyotelily - there's a world of difference between the (often) criminal production and distribution of counterfeit DVDs etc. at car boot sales and the like, and the legal importation and sale of clone brand LEGO. Plus the ever reducing resources available to Trading Standards means that they must prioritise. What would you rather have them do?

@ reactivated_nerd - your comment about the Chinese not having grown into the mentality of copyright etc. might have some validity had they not managed to grow into the mentality of almost every other aspect of capitalism, natural resource exploitation, military expansion, corruption, human rights denial etc., etc., etc. They know full well what they are doing.

@ mr_skinny - I share your frustration with those listings. Manipulating the search function with such listing titles should be banned.

How convincing are the fakes getting these days?

@cocytelily, was it you i saw at DevCon the other weekend?
Anyways, a seller with a large lego stall there warned me there might be other sellers with counterfeit lego there: the kids and i did the round of the stalls a couple of times and i must say if there was, we would have been fooled too: and my kids can spot a rogue megablock in a bucket of bricks at ten paces!

Regarding LEGO and China, they are supposedly building their own factory there, although I can't find any newer info on it other than the initial announcement from 2 years ago (which stated it'd begin construction in 2014 and would be ready in 2017). Assuming it's still being built and on track, that should mean less counterfeit stuff as they won't have to rely on third party producers.

@Deadeye Dave - we did not have a booth at NYCC.

@The Brick Show - point is your a reseller. You also seem to be representing someone's booth in the Vid.

I hate the amount of bootleg Lego sold on eBay so I do understand the issue especially when it comes to collecting, but anybody that picks up minifigures at these stalls is in no doubt that it isn't authentic. They haven't exposed anything.

And given brickshows tactics for stockpiling sets then reselling them for a massive mark up, which I've heard from multiple sources, I don't think they can take the moral high ground. Sorry.

Vendors are doing what they have to do to support themselves and their families, supply and demand. Is it ethical, possibly not, but its understandable. Behaving like every minifig sold is probably some kind of toxic timebomb is not fair. Scalping sets the second they are out of circulation is something I have less sympathy for, that is a far bigger epidemic in the secondary market. But ultimately we all need to make a living, I don't think anybody is getting rich from this so quite honestly, its buyer beware.

There's nothing wrong with genuine LEGO resellers, we're not the ones labelling are goods as real Lego when in fact there quite the opposite. There is a big market for Minifigures and people sometimes just want their favourite character from an expensive set.
These Chinese knock offs which are all over the Internet are blatantly ripping off others peoples hard work, the designers at Lego who come up with all the ideas and artwork on making a big character into Lego form for some person in China just to copy it outright is an outrage and needs to be clamped down on.

@Deadeye Dave @MrPruitt - so only lego is allowed to sell lego. Got it.

A man should be loyal to his friends and family, not a multimillion dollar corporation. TLG will do just fine without your loyalty.

If he was only about profits and scared to lose some sales, he could just sell those figs himself! We are resellers as well and we are also against the knock-offs and make it known to everyone selling them. In the past, we could at least make sure that someone had to put up a sign saying they are not real LEGO and at another event, they will put it in their T&Cs that no knock-offs are being allowed at their events.

Didn't the guy in the video say that NYCC would send these sellers away if LEGO asked them to? It makes me mad that we go around telling people that it is illegal while LEGO doesn't seem to care. It also makes me mad how many people here are okay with it. It IS illegal to sell them. Period.

@ The Brick Show - the free market is great as long as it going your way....
Oh, it sounds like the free market is speaking, SY, Decool, LELE.
Oh, In case you are interested, all products imported into the European markets must meet European standards, check the certifications on the bottom of box on you next SY purchase.

I suspect Lego resellers, like those in this thread (Brick Show, Nadana, demonhunter it appears) don't sell the knockoffs, as they want repeat business. It makes sense to only sell authentic, quality Lego. So, this video is potentially good for their individual companies in the long run, and good for the secondary Lego market.

If Brick Show, and any other reseller wanted to sell the knockoffs, they would need to not advertise the name on their booths at cons, and possibly change their name frequently to avoid a bad rep on the web. I suspect they want to keep their names and have a moral code they adhere to. They obviously draw a line in the sand for themselves.

Every $5 sale of the clones, is potentially $10 or more taken away from the Lego resellers. This video is good marketing for them, especially if the viewers don't bother to read this thread.

At the end of the day however, I believe this video is abunch of hype over nothing. I am not buying this rubbish, and most of us who are going to watch this video, probably are not unkowningly buying this rubbish.

-------------------------

Regarding the value of Lego resellers and the service they offer by selling out of print sets, I strongly suspect they drive up the price for me, of older sets. You see people do it all the time on Bricklink. They buy up the rare parts, then list them for high prices, making a profit. Resellers in general do this, in a much less controlled fashion. Overall, I think they do provide a benefit to the consumer and you can find people doing something similar in other markets. I have no problem with their business model and will probably find myself using their services atleast once in my life.

@MrPruitt - Mot worth a reply. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Our video was from a journalistic point of view. Most people understand this. We were not selling at NYCC and if we were worried knockoffs would hurt our sales we could start selling both...but we won't be.

The best way to avoid knock-offs is to avoid buying open minifigs in the first place. On EBay, if the dealer is in China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, they're most-likely selling fakes. If you must buy open minifigs, find a dealer who you can trust. Talk to the other AFOLs at a convention about who they like to buy from. I usually shop from the same dealers at Brickfair VA every year because I trust them.

The Brick Show is one of the dealers I dont buy from, not because I dont trust them, but because they flip stock LEGO sets for exorbitant prices. Yes, its supply & demand, but if I can buy something for less in a store, then I will.

The reason there is a market for minifigures and custom figures is because adult fans drive up the price. Secondary market sellers are as much to blame for all of this as ignorance. So really, you reap what you sow. Less greed, more sense and we could all enjoy Lego equally.

They have a hissy fit about leaked pictures, but look the other way when it comes to fake figures.

@ MrPruitt.
We get it. You're okay with illegal clones. But is this any reason to insult The Brick Show?
Try to keep this professional- insults never go anywhere, especially when they're one-sided.

The issue here isn't mainly the fact that it is "fake LEGO." While yes, claiming that it's LEGO is illegal, simply advertising that it fits with LEGO is legal. What can be a slam dunk in court is the fact that it is a toy produced without concent of the license owners, like Marvel, Disney, etc. While in China this may not be as much of an issue, these are American branches that are selling the product. That alone is enough to get on their tail. You want to stop them? Don't approach LEGO, but rather approach the booths for Jurrasic Park, Marvel, you name it. Once you get companies other than LEGO on the march... ya, don't expect fake LEGOs to be so easy to get.

I have no clue how some can think these knock offs are acceptable. They tread on both Lego, and the IP owner of whatever the minifigure is. If I'm a fan of something, no way I will let my money go to someone who just copies the IP without any sort of OK from the owner.

And while I don't see how this conversation has gone to people selling Lego sets for profit, I see nothing wrong with any of it. Supply and demand. If a set is no longer available, you have to thank the resellers for stocking up. Without them, you wouldn't be able to buy the set at all. Provided they aren't buying all of a set on release day, then selling them for double right outside, I see no issue.

I really am surprised how their copyrights work. As far as I understood, not only the Lego name, but the style and design of their parts were copyrighted. THAT is the real infringement going on here. Using characters for something that is clearly not made by the company that owns it is pretty commonplace now - it's the entirety of what fan art is and only helps grow brands in the long run. But something made to be a literal imitation is never good. If someone made authentically-looking printed and artificially aged Superman 1 comics, would people say "whatever, they don't SAY it's real"? No, they'd flip out.

The issue, in short, is that these are forgeries. Stealing an idea is one thing, it happens. But making a perfect (or almost perfect) copy is bad for everyone.

Some of these China companies are OEM/ODM, Original Equipment Manf./Original Design Manf. If their OEM requires a Disney license they acquire it. Now they can produce OEM & ODM products to the market with that license.
It's called creating your own competition. May the best company win.

I just realized that it is a customer they are confronting at the 5 minute mark. Why not take the shop owner to task instead?

Vote with your dollars, people.

I have been reading many of the comments here with shock and dismay how some people who claim to be Lego fans and collectors can be so blind and ignorant.

First on the subject of copies. They are illegal. You can't sit and debate that fact. It is not some generic minifigure that is being sold, they are direct copies of Lego minifigures that have been made with the intention of undermining the sale of genuine Lego parts. This infringes the original copyright of the licence holder (whoever that may be for Star Wars, LotR, Marvel or DC comics etc), along with the copyright of the minifig design itself as developed by Lego. But even ignoring this fact is the ludicrous idea that people claim they 'complete' their collection by owning these fakes. Newsflash - your collection of Lego is not complete if half of them are fake! All you have is a pile of valueless plastic.

Next the subject of Comic Cons. I went to London Film and Comic Con in the summer, and for the 2 or 3 genuine sellers of Lego I saw there were 6 or 7 selling fake lego. My opinion here is that the organisers don't care. They sell space to traders there for hundreds of pounds a table. Will they kick out 6 or 7 traders because the 2 or 3 genuine ones complain? It's not in their interest. I pointed out to one purchaser of some fake Lego that they were fakes and the guy didn't care. I wonder though if in a few years time if you go to a show and all you can get is fake merchandise if people will complain that the shows are rubbish because nothing is genuine....

Now onto all the trade bashing that is going on here. This is where I think there is a lot of ignorance. I like the fact that the traders exist, and no, I don't think they are scalpers or rip off merchants. First off, as far as I know Lego refuses to sell directly to companies who break down sets to split them for minifigs. I believe it's against the terms of the retailer licence. Even if they did, Lego wont sell just the Superheroes range, or just Star Wars - the retailers have to buy across the full range. What this means is that the traders that do break up collectible sets may have to purchase the sets at full or near retail price in order to break them down. They then have to sell each figure and all the rest of the lego individually. They have to pay the costs of selling (either a shop, a table or ebay and paypal fees), and the cost of delivery. They have to cover returns and losses for when people steal. They then have to pay at least 20% tax on any money they make. Are they supposed to do all this for free?

Ok, so a quick calculation on a £20 Marvel lego set containing 3 decentish figures selling for £8 each with the remainder of the set going for £10... That's probably considered by a lot of people on here as a rip off. So the trader *eventually* gets back £34 after a lot of effort. Less 20% income tax so that's £28. Less bank charges, selling charges, refunds for losses or stolen items. Maybe they make a fiver for selling 4 things - £1.25 per sale. If you think that's excessive then you are crazy.

My view is thanks to the guys who do this to make a bit of money as it gives me options when I don't want or can't afford the full set. If you don't like it, think about it before you complain!

Anyone who sells this without bating in eye is a strict up crook. Any poor idiot can hold a knockoff in their hand and see it's a blatant copy of Legos design/intellectual property. (Sigh)

The licensing issue may get Marvel and Disney in; they are already dealing with a lot of property issues, not just for bricks, but for clothes, for everyt kid of toy - but they are having a lot of fun trying to prevent these articles from reaching the shelves in Europe and the US... stopping their production in Asia has proven impossible.
LEGO has a good partner there, with a lot of lawyers, and good possibilities to work with Customs. For generic bricks, the safety issue is important - especially considering these are toys, intended for kids. For real cheap things, yes there may be safety issues.

About clones though...
Companies like COBI and Mega Bloks are not 100% there, mostly IMHO because their products tend to have less cleverness in their design. This is quite strange, because the MOC Lego community would probably be able to provide excellent designs and designers. Recently I noticed Mega Bloks franchised (they are part of Mattel) and some of the stuff seems to point to a wish to go up in quality and design.

For kids to do their MOCs, competing products can work really well, apart from the colour consistency issue with the proper Lego bricks.