The OHIM (Office for the Harmonisation of the Internal Market, the European body responsible for managing Community trade marks), through the European Observatory for Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, has for some time been carrying out targeted studies on the impact of counterfeiting on different sectors of industry.
His first studies were in the clothing and perfume and cosmetics sectors.
In the clothing, footwear and accessories sectorIn the case of the United States, the volume of sales of counterfeit products would be around 10%. Applying a calculation method developed on the basis of figures collected from all the Member States of the European Union, this amounts to a dead loss of 26 billion euros for companies in this sector.
And it is not only turnover that is affected, with an estimated 363,000 jobs lost or not created as a result of counterfeiting. These jobs cannot be maintained or created due to the loss and loss of earnings.
On the other hand, if we go further and extend these figures to the related sectors that depend on the clothing, footwear and accessories sector (we are thinking mainly of suppliers), as well as the revenue that should have been received by the States in the form of taxes, duties and VAT, the figure rises to 43.3 billion euros in losses and 518,000 jobs lost.
In the field of perfumes and cosmeticsSales of counterfeit products represent 7.8% of total sales in the European Union. This amounts to a loss of 4.7 billion for companies in the sector, and around 51,000 jobs lost.
Extensively, including the losses of suppliers and the state, we arrive at a figure of more than 11 billion euros in losses and 80,000 jobs.
The full reports are available in French at the Observatory's website.