A new study by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) says consumers are facing ever more risks due to buying fake products online. A surge in e-commerce counterfeit from nearly every sector, including fashion, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, can pose great safety and health concerns.
Findings from the study European Citizens and Intellectual Property show consumers still find it hard to distinguish between genuine and fake goods. Nearly 1 in 10 Europeans (9 percent) claimed that they were misled into buying counterfeits, with significant differences among EU Member States.
The countries with a higher proportion of misled consumers are Bulgaria (19 percent), Romania (16 percent) and Hungary (15 percent). In contrast, Sweden (2 percent) and Denmark (3 percent) have the lowest figures within the EU. Ireland is well above the EU average with 13 percent claiming to have been tricked into buying fake goods.
In a global context where e-commerce is booming – over 70 percent of Europeans shopped online in 2020, according to Eurostat – uncertainty regarding…
