EUIPO：counterfeits cause €55 million in lost sales each year

Up to €55 million is lost in sales in the EU each year due to counterfeiting, according to figures from the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

EUIPO’s 2019 status report on intellectual property rights infringement shows that €110 are lost per EU inhabitant, with over 460,000 jobs lost due to counterfeiting.

The total contribution of IP rights-intensive industries to the EU economy accounts for 42 percent of GDP (€5.7 trillion) and 28 percent of employment, according to the EUIPO.

Clothing is the leading sector suffering from lost sales due to counterfeiting, losing over €28 million.

Medicines are the second most-suffering sector suffering from lost sales due to counterfeiting, losing €9 million, €19 million less than clothing.

Overall losses of sales equate to 7.4 percent of overall sales in 11 sectors studied by the EUIPO.

Those sectors include spirits and wine, pharmaceuticals and smartphones, among others.

Christian Archambeau, executive director of the EUIPO commented: “Europe depends on industrial sectors like the 11 sectors studied here for its growth and job creation. But our research work shows how counterfeiting and piracy can put growth and jobs at risk.”

“We carry out this analysis, and our wider body of research, to support policymakers in devising solutions to this problem, and to help make EU consumers aware of the economic consequences of counterfeiting and piracy at a wider level.”