As one of the world’s leading outdoor power equipment manufacturers the STIHL name stands for outstanding innovation, high quality products and comprehensive service. Unfortunately this makes us a target for imitators and counterfeiters who fool consumers into thinking they are buying a well-known, premium brand when in fact they are being sold a cheap imitation.

To ensure that the product you are buying is a genuine STIHL make sure you are buying from an authorized STIHL Dealer.

Counterfeit products may look and feel genuine, but they share almost none of the quality and safety features found on genuine STIHL equipment. All our products are thoroughly tested and approved before being released into the market, whereas counterfeit or imitated products are not vetted by any reputable bureaus or testing facilities - even though they may carry (fake) EU and SABS stickers.

Counterfeit products are not always exact replicas or copies of STIHL products. Some are in a different colour to the characteristic STIHL orange but have the same build and familiar STIHL model designations (such as FS 250, FS 280, MS 381, etc). These are usually sold under the guise of being manufactured in the same facilities as genuine STIHL products.

At times these products are offered at prices only slightly lower than the genuine STIHL models – this is done to create the impression that they are original STIHL products.

With 95 years’ experience and significant investment into research and development STIHL products are characterised, among other things, by premium quality and strict safety standards. This is not the case with imitations. The lower price of counterfeit products goes hand in hand with inferior performance, shorter life, less power and compromised safety.

• The operating time and overall performance of counterfeit or pirated machines are usually compromised. They often malfunction or break down after only a short time in use, and since spare parts are not reliably they cannot always be serviced or repaired. These products are not covered by STIHL warranty policies.
• Safety-critical devices may be faulty or in some cases missing completely. This poses a significant risk to users, with no recourse in the event of an accident. In a recent example, a counterfeit chainsaw was unpacked only to find that the hand guard for the chain brake – an essential safety device on a chainsaw – was broken.

STIHL production facilities are state-of-the art and held to the highest standards of quality, safety and social responsibility. As a company STIHL is fully committed not only to environmental sustainability but to ethical employment and human rights practices throughout our entire supply chain. Our environmental sustainability and social responsibility policies are based on the principles of the United Nations Global Compact and we require that our business partners observe the same principles.

Under no circumstances are counterfeit machines manufactured in the same factories as genuine STIHL products. Counterfeit or imitated products are usually manufactured in questionable production facilities that do not hold themselves to environmental sustainability, social responsibility or human rights standards. By buying these products, you are supporting and further enabling these unethical practices.

Sometimes it can be very difficult from the outside. Counterfeit STIHL chainsaws may boast our trademarked STIHL orange and grey colour scheme and consumers are misled by forged stickers with the STIHL brand name or logo and model designations marked on the machines. Please note that STIHL never uses stickers to mark its products – our logo is always printed or embossed directly onto the product.

The only way to be entirely sure that the product you are buying is a genuine STIHL is to buy directly from an authorised STIHL dealer. With over 200 dealers nationwide, finding one shouldn't be a problem.

TO FIND YOUR NEAREST AUTHORISED STIHL DEALER VISIT OUR ONLINE DEALER LOCATOR