The trade in counterfeit products can be combated with the help of technology, as demonstrated by the ‘eCommerce’ giant Amazon, but also technology companies such as SICPA, which offers solutions so that companies with fewer resources can protect the legitimacy of their goods.
Counterfeit products present a challenge for the economy, because they violate intellectual property rights and affect the sales and income of brands, but also for society, since they can be a risk to the health and safety of people, they are usually of lower quality.
According to a joint report by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published in January, the most frequently counterfeited products are electrical machinery and electronic items, which account for the 30 % of seizures at the borders of the European Union, followed by clothing (18 %), perfumery and cosmetics (10 %), and games and toys (also 10 %).
The report highlights that the main way to buy counterfeit products is the Internet. An example of this is the ‘eCommerce’ Amazon, which only last year seized more than six million counterfeit products, twice as many as in 2021. To carry out these actions, the multinational establishes rigorous preventive controls to deter offenders, equips brand protection tools, holds counterfeiters to account for their illegal actions, and educates the consumer about these fraudulent practices.
But as the cited report highlights, affected companies often lack the resources to detect and counteract the risk of counterfeit trade effectively, something that is seen especially in SMEs. In this context, the company SICPA has developed the REVEO securitization technology. This anti-counterfeiting solution combines layers of inks, holographs and special QR codes with digital security, registered and secured against any type of violation with a data validation mobile application.
Its managers explain in a press release that “adding material and digital security elements in the marking and activation of the product protects the legitimacy of the good and drastically reduces illegal trade”, in such a way that “profitability increases and the cost decreases, and then the final profitability of the company rises substantially”.
REVEO has just arrived in Europe after its initial launch in the American market, and already has more than 5,000 million labels distributed among the main companies in high-value segments, and in markets such as agri-food, luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetic, seeds or spare parts for vehicles.
Source: dpa
(Reference image source: Antonin FELS, Unsplash)
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