Chinese state-owned XCMG facing lawsuits alleging it defrauded Canadian equipment dealers
At Vancouver's law courts on Friday, veteran heavy equipment dealer Ryan Martin said they started with XCMG in 2017 and business was good up until about 2021.
Chinese state-owned heavy equipment manufacturer XCMG is currently facing multiple civil lawsuits in Canada, claiming the company defrauded equipment dealers through serial number tampering. The controversy began in 2017 when veteran dealer Ryan Martin's family business, Arctic Machinery, started selling XCMG equipment in Prince George, Chilliwack, and Kelowna. According to Martin, the quality of the equipment decreased significantly around 2021, causing substantial damage to his family's business.
Martin explained that other XCMG dealers in Canada reported similar issues, which led to the discovery of evidence suggesting they were trying to misrepresent the equipment they were selling. XCMG allegedly altered serial number plates and changed the manufacturing years to deceive end-users. Additionally, a Saskatchewan dealer filed a lawsuit against XCMG, alleging unlawful tampering with serial number plates on equipment sold in Alberta.
Canada-based LTR Equipment and a lift company in Ontario have also filed similar cases, claiming that XCMG tampered with the serial numbers of their equipment. In response, XCMG Canada stated that Arctic Machinery purchased $18 million worth of XCMG-branded inventory and is fully defending the claims in the civil actions. The RCMP confirmed that members of their auto theft unit conducted a search warrant at XCMG's headquarters in April, and the investigation is ongoing.
Written by urgent.news from Global News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
