The European Union Intellectual Property Office has published its annual report "The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting in the Clothing, Cosmetics and Toys Sectors in the EU" which studies the incidence and impact of piracy in the European Union in the named sectors.
Spain is one of the territories most affected by counterfeiting. It is in fourth place among the EU countries most affected by counterfeiting. Spain loses a total of more than 1.5 billion euros in sales per year due to counterfeiting. 1 billion of these losses are in the clothing and apparel sector, while 400 million are in the cosmetics sector.
Sales are not the only thing that undermines and damages counterfeiting. It also destroys and devastates jobs. Specifically, in the fashion and clothing sector, 11,200 people lost their jobs due to piracy, 3,600 in the case of cosmetics and 200 people in the toy sector, another sector that has also been hit by counterfeit products.
The scale of these losses when calculated at EU level is even more worrying. The European Union loses more than 16 billion euros to counterfeiting and almost 200,000 jobs are lost every year. Combining the fashion, cosmetics and toy sectors, a reduction in sales of genuine products of almost 8 billion euros has been achieved in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Austria, the countries where the biggest losses have been recorded.
The report concludes that the sector least affected by counterfeiting is the cosmetics sector. The Euipo study indicates that losses for genuine cosmetic products have amounted to just under 5% of total EU sales.