Nexans and Authentic Vision partner to tackle cable counterfeiting

• Nexans has adopted Authentic Vision Meta-Anchor™ technology to secure Nexans products and supply chains and combat illicit trade.
• State-of-the-art automated mobile authentication enables customers to verify the authenticity of Nexans products prior to the purchase. 
• The Meta-Anchor™ technology delivers digital enablement offering enhanced consumer benefits and protects Nexans’ brand value and reputation.
• Nexans and Authentic Vision envision further customer engagement applications made possible by the use of digital identity of physical products.

Whether it is luxury products, consumer goods or industrial tools, a growing wave of counterfeiting is spreading across the globe, and electrical cables are no exception. Nexans, a leader in the design and manufacturing of cable systems, and Authentic Vision, a leading provider of mobile authentication solutions, have agreed to enter into a strategic alliance partnership based upon the organizations’ shared philosophy focusing on consumer safety and improving the consumer experience. Authentic Vision’s patented Holographic Fingerprint labels have already been applied to Nexans products packaging in Peru and Lebanon and are under deployment in other countries. The labels make it easy for customers or distributors to scan and verify the authenticity of a product with any smartphone, an approach that is fully in line with Nexans’ strategy of providing value-added services to its customers.

Nexans demonstrates its determination to protect its customers from potentially harmful, substandard products. The most important risk associated with counterfeit cable is cheating on the quantity of copper, which can have dramatic consequences. By reducing the diameter of the copper conductor, counterfeit cables can become abnormally hot when current is passed through them and cause a short-circuit and a fire outbreak.

The Group is now planning to roll out and deploy Authentic Vision’s solution in products around the world to protect the brand and create consumer engagement.

Secure, easy to use and widely beneficial

Authentic Vision’s solution is highly secure, easy to use and instantly provides clear positive/negative verification results. No additional training or specialized equipment is required.

Thomas Weiss points out that his company's technology is also global and actionable: “Our solution provides customers with proof of authenticity, and in the event a fake attempt occurs, precise geo-location provides brands with actionable data.” In other words, the Meta-Anchor™ technology provides every product with a physically and digitally unique identifier (UID) and tracks counterfeiting attempts, thus providing valuable data for the prosecution of counterfeiters and fraudsters. Only three weeks after the Nexans launch, the first suspicious activities were recorded by the Group.

Environmental, partner and customer benefits

Nexans is engaged and deeply committed to reduce any adverse impact on the environment. Counterfeiters do not apply rules and regulations as Nexans does, to limit the environmental impact. With the Authentic Vision unique holographic label, anyone can differentiate a genuine product that respects standards in force and one that is manufactured in the frame of the Group Sustainability action plan.

Indeed, Nexans and Authentic Vision are joining efforts to develop customer engagement features that will be implemented by regional marketing teams, through the Nexans mobile app, which is used to authenticate the Nexans products.