Companies and private workers suffer from the existence and sale of counterfeit products, and not just because of loss of sales hurting revenue and company reputations. The more alarming fact is that the counterfeit industry has actually been linked to terrorist activity.
NBC
$151,000 worth of fake designer handbags.
In the 21st century, advanced machinery enables factories overseas to create a 1:1 replica of products from luxury brands like Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci. This huge counterfeit industry is worth over “$3 trillion dollars annually” as reported by AlpVision.
This counterfeit scheme would also hurt the economy since when a replica goods gets purchased the legitimate company of the products lose revenue and thus lose profit, pulling money out of the economy and possibly making many Americans lose their jobs.
With the main source of origin of these counterfeit products coming from China, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection “seizes and destroys millions of dollars worth of goods that violate intellectual property right (IPR) laws.”
The majority of the products entering American soil illegally are items such as clothes, handbags, wallets, watches, jewelry, and footwear. The Customs and Border Protection warns products like makeup and skincare “are made with substandard materials or components and can be hazardous to your health.”
Thomas R. Cordova
An officer of U.S. Customs and Border Protection goes through boxes of products coming in from overseas at CBP Port LA/LB Seaport.
As reported by Vision of Humanity “counterfeiting can be a way of financing terrorism.” We could see an example of this in the 2004 Madrid train bombing where Interpol says Al-Qaïda and other extremist groups have been funded by selling fake CDs which led them to carry out the terroristic act, killing 193 peoples and injuring many more.
In addition, these counterfeit products often create sweatshops which violate the child labor laws. In these sweatshops children as young as five to 17 are being pressured to work countless hours while being underpaid.
With this in mind we could see how bad the counterfeit industry really is as these could be used for terrorist activity, force child labor, and decline in the economy. Since the purchase of replica products is illegal, use resources like NEMA to report any counterfeits and prevent criminals from ruining more lives.
