Counterfeits cost Europe €16 billion each year: agency

Counterfeit products – mainly clothing – cost the European economy 16 billion euros a year and cause the loss of almost 200,000 jobs, the EU Intellectual Property Office said on Tuesday.

The findings, based on data from 2018 to 2021, show that counterfeits take the biggest toll in the clothing sector, costing €12 billion ($13.1 billion) a year, or 5.2 % of its total revenue, the agency said.

Fake cosmetics account for losses of three billion euros, while toys account for one billion euros, although the EUIPO warned that “counterfeiting, like any illegal activity, cannot be precisely measured.”

It based its findings on the number of items seized by police, as well as the percentage of Europeans who admitted to buying counterfeit products in each country in the bloc.

A June 2023 study found that a third of Europeans found it acceptable to buy counterfeit products if the price of the authentic item was considered too high, a percentage that rose to half of all young people surveyed.

Most of the counterfeits occurred in just five EU members: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Austria accounted for half of the annual losses.

Based on the results, the EUIPO said Germany was losing 40,000 jobs a year, Italy 24,000 and France and Spain 15,000 jobs each.