Counterfeit goods cost Europe's clothing, cosmetics and toy industries €16 billion and almost 200,000 jobs each year, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) said, AFP reported.
Based on data from 2018 to 2021, the EUIPO study states that the clothing sector is the most affected, losing €12 billion in revenue each year, or 5.2% of its turnover .
Losses in the cosmetics sector are estimated at 3 billion euros, and those in the toy sector at 1 billion euros.
Not all of Europe is affected in the same way: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Austria are responsible for half of these losses.
Extrapolating the state of the affected sectors, EUIPO estimated the number of jobs lost as a result of these deficits at 200,000, of which 40,000 in Germany, 24,000 in Italy, around 15,000 in Spain and the same number in France.
But the European agency admits that "counterfeiting, like any other illegal activity, cannot be measured precisely".
Therefore, to produce these estimates, EUIPO has created a model based in part on the amounts seized by the police and the percentage of Europeans who admit to having bought counterfeit goods in each country.
According to a previous survey from June 2023, a third of Europeans believe that it is acceptable to buy counterfeit goods if the price of the original product is too high. This share rises to half among young people. /BGNES
