The economic downturn and instability contribute to the intensification of the demand for counterfeit – in such periods, due to the reduction in income, people are more actively looking for “loopholes” for any form of savings, and the purchase of replicas instead of originals is one of them. Anna Lebsak-Kleimans, CEO of Fashion Consulting Group in Russia, told Izvestia about this, commenting on BrandMonitor’s forecast of a 10% increase in sales of fakes in the country in 2021.
On the eve of BrandMonitor published the results of a study, according to which, by the end of this year, the Russian market of counterfeit products may grow by 10%, to 6.5 trillion rubles. About 40% of this amount is made up of sales of counterfeit products, 60% – of non-food products. Most often, clothes and shoes of luxury brands, sports shoes – 72 billion rubles of the total counterfeit market share are counterfeited.
Lebsak-Kleimans noted that the growth of any illegitimate supply is associated with a weakening of control over distribution channels and an increase in demand. If there is such an increase, it is connected precisely with an increase in active demand, and not with a weakening of control. In Russia, control over the legitimacy of the import of products and their sales is increasing annually, which is facilitated by the digitalization of all business links: production, logistics, distribution, she emphasized.
According to her, the offline trade market, large online stores and marketplaces are becoming more transparent for regulatory authorities. Today, fly-by-night sites and migrating accounts on social networks are an active loophole for counterfeiting. The expert, citing data from the BtandMonitor-2020 study, reported that seven out of ten brand proposals presented in the social networks Instagram and VKontakte turned out to be fakes.
In the category of clothing, footwear and accessories, brands that are actively using so-called “handwriting” attributes in their collections are most counterfeited. These are either recognizable logos or handwriting popular models of clothes, shoes and accessories that brands reproduce from year to year.
Speaking about ways to combat counterfeiting, the specialist called on countries to strengthen control over business transparency. She recalled that for this, programs of mandatory labeling of goods are being introduced, which allows tracing the source of origin, certification requirements, customs control, receiving and considering complaints from consumers – in Russia this is done by Rospotrebnadzor.
The CEO of Fashion Consulting Group in Russia also called for tougher penalties for counterfeiting. She gave an example: in China, the State Administration for Market Regulation has passed a law to prosecute not only the owners of the goods, but also those on whose site they were presented for counterfeiting.
“Ignorance of the illegitimacy of a product does not exempt a shopping center or marketplace from liability. At the same time, the punishment is not limited to the confiscation of counterfeits and a fine, electronic operations of companies may be limited, the company may lose a trade license, ”she said.
Among other things, the expert called on the brands-rights holders to fight violators using test purchases, monitoring information, and going to court proceedings with violators.
She added that in Russia, at the moment, online retailers themselves have begun work to identify counterfeit products. To sell a branded product on any marketplace or multi-brand online store, the seller needs to upload a standard package of documents to the platform, including a trademark certificate. In reality, the formal availability of all documents is not a guarantee of the absence of violations, because while there are ways to “bypass” electronic control systems, the specialist complained. Documents may turn out to be fake, the goods on the showcase and in the catalog may differ, you can leave out the “brand” section in the product card and thus “skip past the electronic control systems.”
“Therefore, marketplaces are combining manual controls and developing increasingly efficient AI-based algorithms that analyze keyword lists, images and block counterfeit cards,” Lebsak-Kleimans said.
According to her, marketplaces declare that today they do not yet have the technical capability “to be 100% responsible for the decency of hundreds and thousands of suppliers.”
The expert considers it necessary to take measures to educate the population itself in the ethics of responsible consumption and a sustainable economy. In this case, the requirements of responsibility and honesty will sound not only from government agencies and the business owner, but also from the end buyers themselves, she concluded.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
