Taiwan Accuses Chinese Apple Supplier of Stealing from Taiwanese Apple Supplier

18 JULY 2022 - Word of a whole different kind of problem in Apple’s supply chain. A piece from 9 to 5 Mac has authorities in Taiwan accusing China’s Luxshare of stealing know-how and workers from Taiwan’s Catcher Technology to win business from Apple. Both Catcher and Luxshare are Apple suppliers.

Citing a Reuters report, 9 to 5 Mac says:

…Taiwan wants to stop what it views as “underhand and illegal activities by Chinese firms to steal know-how and poach away talent in what Taipei’s government views as a threat to the island’s tech prowess.”

Authorities have charged 14 individuals after an investigation lasting a year-and-a-half. According to the report:

Luxshare “lured” Catcher’s China based research and development team with promises of high salaries and stole business secrets from the Taiwanese firm, causing them big losses, the prosecutors said in a statement.

Luxshare was doing this in order to be able to “quickly build factories and mass produce cases for iPhones, iPads and other products,” the statement said.

While one assumes Apple would not encourage Luxshare to do anything nefarious, the report suggests that the Chinese firm may have been reacting to pressure from the Cupertino-company. 9 to 5 Mac cites its own reporting from a couple of years ago that had Apple pressuring Luxshare to expand its know-how so that Apple could be less reliant on Foxconn.

Neither Apple nor Luxshare offered comment for the story. Catcher said it will continue to protect its “trade secrets and intellectual property rights, and will investigate anything that infringes on its rights and interests.” Prosecutors in Taiwan say their department:

…will do its best to investigate such cases to maintain the sound development of [Taiwan’s] enterprises and ensure the competitiveness of national industries…