Fake Good Sales Have Risen By Over 80% In The Last Five Years

The International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) released a new report indicating that trade in counterfeit goods has increased by over 80% in a five-year period

The new Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study “Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods: Mapping the Economic Impact” published in April 2016, highlighted that trade in counterfeit and pirated goods has grown from US $250 billion annually in 2008 to more than US$461 billion in 2013.

According to these findings, counterfeit products now represent more than 2.5% of all world trade including 5% of all imports into the European Union.

Jeffrey Hardy, Director of ICC BASCAP stressed that “it’s vital for governments to step up the enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights”.

The OECD report shows that counterfeit and pirated products originate from virtually all economies on all continents with China remaining the largest. Counterfeiters are improving their logistics networks, manipulating transit routes, exploiting governance gaps and taking advantage of the huge growth in online shopping.

The United States is on the first place among countries, which economies suffer from sales of counterfeit goods. Losses to counterfeit goods in the US equal to $ 225 billion per year.

In the EU these numbers are less but sales of counterfeit products still significantly affect the economy. Counterfeits cost European brands the value of 9.7% of their total sales every year, $28.7 billion. New report by Europe’s Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) emphasizes that lost sales result in approximately 363,000 lost jobs across the manufacturing, retail, and wholesale sectors of Europe’s fashion industries.