Street vendors, car boot sales, markets, trade shows, mall outlets, purse parties, hotels, rallies, and bazaars represent 25% of the 1647 incidents monitored which were valued at US$1.9 billion in 2006.
Although law enforcement is aware of the activities which occur at these locations, the public is not always privy to this information. In an effort to warn consumers regarding the location of illegal and harmful products, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has published a list of areas where fake goods have been traded.
"Consumers seeking to protect themselves from these goods should be aware these locations have been previously investigated for sales of counterfeit and pirated goods." says Glen Gieschen, the manager of the Intelligence Reports program.
"Mobile locations are an obvious choice for any criminal, whether they peddle methamphetamine, bootleg DVDs or knockoff handbags, these locations are easier to evade the scrutiny of law enforcement. The use of temporary venues also serves to increase the investigative resources required, thus limiting law enforcement efforts and low rent venues such as farmers markets and some mall outlets are attractive to counterfeiters seeking to maximise their profits and fund-raising efforts."
Top locations raided in 2006:
Global demand growing
During 2006, the top seven locations analysed represent multiple raids and seizures throughout the year. Moreover, the entire list encompasses more than 44 countries indicating the demand for knockoffs is global. The primary focus of investigations at these venues centered on two areas, the entertainment and software industry (53.8% of cases), and clothing and accessories (29.4%).
These locations were also found to sell a wide range of other fake, high demand consumer items which include jewellery, watches, electronic equipment, perfume, cosmetics, cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, alcohol, books, computer equipment, toys, and sports equipment.
Other areas of concern focus on the links to undesirable and other criminal activity. Analysis indicates one of every 20 vendors who peddle these goods is funding their own personal drug use or trafficking, sells pornography, carries weapons, are illegal immigrations, or have committed assaults, welfare fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, murder, theft and terrorism.
According to Gieschen, "Many of these markets contain hundreds of stalls which increase the chances of buying phony goods which fund these types of activities and helps fuel the tremendous growth of counterfeiting and piracy. To attack this problem, the market owners need to police their own venues, otherwise they are profiting from illegal sales and helping to launder goods which support other types of criminal activity."
Ronald Brohm, director of SNB-REACT, an anti-counterfeiting organisation which represents 135 brands and investigates 4000 cases in Europe each year states, says, "By focusing on these outlet points, you can target the majority of counterfeit sales. Leaving these outlets untouched, which is now happening frequently because the problem is already too wide spread and enforcement is afraid of public escalation, establishes a perfect platform for the organisation of this crime to further develop. Landlord liability for market management would be a break through."
Ruth Orchard, the director-general of the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, believes "the website publication by BASCAP of a long list of markets worldwide will be of great value in the many attempts to educate consumers - both by government and by industry - since, as far as we know, this information has not been readily available before on such a scale. This groundbreaking initiative will also assist law enforcement and industry more effectively to target the problem markets of the world, which currently harbour the retail 'front-end' of the counterfeiting supply chain."
"In the future, it may be possible to publish a list of companies which manufacture and sell bogus goods to further assist consumers and press for more effective strategies to combat this problem" says Gieschen, "Currently we maintain a list of more than 1050 companies involved in counterfeit activity."
This report is derived from data used to generate BASCAP’s Daily Counterfeit & Piracy Intelligence Report statistics compiled over 2006 and focuses on intellectual property theft. For more information regarding the BASCAP Intelligence Reports, visit www.BASCAP.com. To subscribe to the BASCAP Counterfeit & Piracy Intelligence Reports, visit http://www.bascap.com/news/index.html.
Founded in 1980 by 18 companies with shared concerns about their genuine brands being faked, the Anti-Counterfeiting Group (ACG) now represents the interests of over 200 companies in 30 different countries. Brand owner members make clothing and car parts, toys, pharmaceuticals, food, drink, healthcare and beauty products, and even washing powder. All these products and more are now routinely counterfeited.
The Dutch Anti Counterfeiting Group - Stichting Namaakbestrijding - now called SNB-REACT is a non profit coalition created April 1991 at the initiative of the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce. Objective is to actively fight counterfeit trade. With the support of the European Commission, REACT Italy was founded. In 2002 the two organisations merged into a business association SNB-REACT. SNB-REACT aims at fighting the trade in counterfeiting in the most efficient and cost effective manner. To this end it provides a full package of legal and practical services, representing more than 135 well know brands and conducting more than 4000 investigates each year in Europe.
