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Online counterfeiting statistics point to the trend that this illegal practice is on the rise. However, brand owners can take action against these threats and at least minimize counterfeiting of their goods or bring them to a halt entirely.

In a nutshell, online counterfeiting is the illegal practice of tricking consumers to believe that the goods they are buying are authentic, when in fact they are just ill-produced cheap knockoffs of the real thing.

Counterfeiters usually imprint some kind of symbol or other trademarked emblem on these products to authenticate them. This not only causes billions of dollars in losses for brands worldwide, it leads to the destruction of the reputation of these brands as well. Online counterfeiting statistics also point to loss in tax revenues for developing countries as well as harming an industry’s employment rate.

Beyond Brand Damage

Online Counterfeiting is much larger a story than just exacting losses upon companies and as I said, taxes and employment. Unknowingly, the consumers that purchase these knockoffs, also might be supporting organized crime. This includes foreign drug cartels who see large profits from counterfeiting and extremely low periods in jail if caught.

Counterfeit goods are typically made from low-grade components and are sometimes put into identical packaging as the authentic product. The industries that are targeted by online counterfeiters range from apparel, software and music to automobile and airplane parts and toys. It is a very wide range.

Counterfeiters Support Child Labor

Counterfeit goods typically have a reputation that includes poor design and parts that are unsafe usually made with toxic chemicals. For the most part, consumers don’t care. They also seem to dismiss the fact that many of these products are created in sweatshops by minors who work for pennies, if for anything at all.

Online Counterfeiting Statistics

Let’s take a look at some current online counterfeiting statistics and events that will underscore the huge challenge brands face in the course of brand protection:

• Between the years of 1992 and 2014, brand enforcement officials from the NHL (National Hockey League) with the assistance of the police seized over $10.5M of counterfeit hockey team related goods. The types of products ran the gamut and included everything from jerseys to t-shirts to hats. The NHL estimates that the cost during the years to the league due to these counterfeits was worth over $400M. Source: NBC “ NHL Warns Blackhawks Fans of Counterfeit Merchandise”.
• A sting operation that lasted 10 days against counterfeit drugs was conducted and coordinated with Interpol. Over 8 Million doses of fake drugs  were discovered, over 230 people were arrested on a global scale, and over 10,500 sites that sold these doses were shut down.
• In 2012, in the U.S. Alone, over $1.25B of counterfeit goods were seized. This was what was caught. There is no telling what the worth of total counterfeit goods were.

Below is a list of the top 10 most counterfeited brands in 2013:

• Nike – 1,123 cases
• Apple – 867 cases
• Rolex -809 cases
• Samsung – 631 cases
• Adidas – 532 cases
• Louis Vuitton – 497 cases
• Chanel  -464 cases
• Cialis – 425 cases
• Viagra – 365 cases
• Gucci – 307 cases

Brand Protection

With this proliferation of counterfeit goods, and the wild and generally lawless nature of the Internet, it only follows that Brands should seriously implement a brand protection tool to help stem these counterfeiting threats. Brand protection is not something that should be added to any wish list for brands, it is imperative. The tool should provide round the clock monitoring of these threats and should prioritize them in order of importance.

A brand protection tool should be flexible and one that allows you to customer tailor to your business requirements. By having the right anti-counterfeiting system in motion, it will give you what you need to continue pushing your business on the fast track to success while protecting your brand. In this way, you will be able to repel the actions of counterfeiters and stop them from chipping away at your bottom line and reputation.