The EUIPO – European Union Intellectual Property Office has released the results of a study on the economic impact of counterfeiting in various sectors, including clothing, cosmetics and toys in the European Union (EU).
This study shows the impact of counterfeiting on the economy of European countries and, consequently, the loss of jobs.
It has also been concluded that European companies are suffering reductions in exports to other countries as a result of sales of counterfeit products on the internal market.
In respect of the Portuguese case, this study concludes that:
• Between 2018 and 2021, the clothing industry lost an average of 337 million euros in sales revenue. This represents 6.1% of clothing sales in the EU.
• This counterfeiting-related loss of sales in the clothing industry has led to fewer jobs, specifically in the order of 9,495 people per year.
• In the cosmetics sector, the estimated loss of sales (due to counterfeiting) is 83 million euros, or 7.7%.
• It is estimated that in the toy sector these losses are 18 million, which represents 9.5%.
In general terms and among other conclusions as regards the European Union, the figures are alarming, with the clothing sector set to lose almost 12 billion euros in average revenue between 2018 and 2021, this loss implying fewer jobs for 160,000 people every year over the same period.
It must be stressed that the EUIPO designed these estimates based on a model which relates the volume of seizures made by the authorities in each European country to the percentage of Europeans who admitted buying counterfeit products from the sectors analysed, by country.
