--- title: 'The Impact of Online Counterfeiting on Businesses' url: 'https://argobs.com/en/237703-2' markdown: 'https://argobs.com/en/237703-2.md' lang: en date: '2025-06-27' description: 'E-commerce continues to establish itself as a key channel for significantly increasing brand visibility and reaching international markets that would otherwise be hard to access. According to the latest available estimates published in 2024 by the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) and confirmed by UNCTAD …' taxonomy: category: - contraffazione --- # The Impact of Online Counterfeiting on Businesses 27 June 2025 | Counterfeiting E-commerce continues to establish itself as a key channel for significantly increasing brand visibility and reaching international markets that would otherwise be hard to access. According to the latest available estimates published in 2024 by the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) and confirmed by UNCTAD surveys, in 2023**, the global value of B2C e-commerce alone exceeded 6 trillion dollars. Even more significant is the B2B e-commerce segment, which in the same period reached an estimated value of about 35 trillion dollars (ICE, 2024; UNCTAD, 2024).** In recent years in particular, online sales growth has maintained strong momentum, further consolidated after the COVID-19 pandemic. Established purchasing habits and greater familiarity with digital platforms and marketplaces have made the shift of many consumers from physical to online retail a structural one. A few figures are enough to show the major role e-commerce plays on the international stage today: **in China, the world's largest market, the value of online transactions now accounts for over 35% of total retail sales** (UNCTAD, 2024). Alibaba Group alone, at the close of the most recent edition of its well-known "Singles' Day" promotional event (held on 11 November 2024 and once again extended over several days), recorded record sales of around 100 billion dollars. However, the considerable benefits of an online presence come with the problem of counterfeiting attempts by malicious actors, who seek to make illicit profits by exploiting the most distinctive and well-known elements of a brand. **According to the latest OECD/EUIPO report, the value of international trade in counterfeit or pirated goods in 2022 reached around 600 billion dollars, equal to 3.8% of global trade in non-oil goods.** This figure marks a significant increase on the past (in 2016, trade in counterfeits amounted to 509 billion dollars, or 3.3% of global trade volume). The first and most significant impact of counterfeiting is clearly economic: **the supply of fake products translates, for the most part, into lost revenue for the company producing the original goods**. Moreover, since in most cases the fake product is offered at a fraction of the price of the original (with negligible production costs), the counterfeiter can win significant market share at the expense of the genuine brand. The phenomenon **can also have negative repercussions across the distribution chain**, where local resellers, faced with fierce competition from fake products, will blame the brand owner for failing to protect its brand effectively. It is therefore clear that the problems caused by counterfeiting are not limited to those that can be measured quantitatively, but also affect aspects more closely tied to a brand's reputation: low-quality copies, more prone to manufacturing defects (if not outright malfunctions), will inevitably harm the prestige of the brand they exploit, causing **reputational damage** that is costly and complex to repair. **MAIN FORMS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT ON MARKETPLACES** The complexity of the phenomenon lies not only in the problems that accompany it, but also in the variety of forms it can take: when we talk about counterfeiting, we tend to picture a **low-quality copy of an original product**. However, there are many ways in which a malicious actor can try to profit illicitly from a brand; this is an important distinction above all from an operational standpoint, as it involves different types of intellectual property rights and, in some cases, different approaches to resolution by the platform concerned. Below is a brief list of the main cases encountered during routine online anti-counterfeiting work: - **Product counterfeiting**: the classic example, involving faithful copies of original products, sold at a price often a fraction of the original, with manufacturing defects, more or less marked aesthetic differences and generally poor quality; - **Registered design infringement**: similar to the previous type, it differs in the intellectual property right infringed: the contested product bears a very close resemblance, in overall appearance and characteristic details, to a given product, a product protected by a design registered with the relevant IP office (e.g. EUIPO); - **Trademark stuffing**: when advertising products that are not in themselves fake, counterfeiters may sometimes still use the registered trademark of a famous brand, to capitalize on its renown and attract potential buyers. This type of infringement can be committed in two different ways: by using a logo (figurative mark) in the images of the listing, or by including a word mark anywhere in it (e.g. title, description). With the second method, the counterfeiter's listings are indexed for the keyword matching the infringed trademark, gaining visibility (***traffic diversion***); - **Unauthorized use of copyrighted material**: generally considered a lesser infringement than the others listed, it involves including in the listing images and/or videos covered by the brand owner's copyright (for example photos from promotional campaigns or taken from its official websites). These infringements are often committed, more or less knowingly, by resellers of genuine products, who have not been authorized by the brand owner to use the material in question. The types of infringement listed here (which can appear individually or together in a single listing) are in themselves complex and delicate cases to handle; in addition, it must be borne in mind that counterfeiters are very often aware that they must watch out for those determined to investigate and counter their actions. Their activity will therefore always be geared towards operating as discreetly and subtly as possible, so as to evade monitoring and prevent their listings from being challenged. The struggle between watchers and watched is constant and ever-evolving, with moves and countermoves aimed at always staying one step ahead of the other side. It is with this in mind that it becomes essential to turn to an experienced provider capable of introducing effective and flexible IP protection solutions. Want to know whether your company is exposed to online threats? You can request a free assessment by filling in the form below or by writing to . --- ## Navigation - Parent: [News](https://argobs.com/en/news.md) - Previous: [EU-Mercosur Agreement: Stronger Online Protection for Italian Geographical Indications](https://argobs.com/en/accordo-ue-mercosur-maggiore-tutela-delle-indicazioni-geografiche-italiane-online.md) - Next: [How to Install a Workplace Video Surveillance System in Compliance with the GDPR and the Workers' Statute](https://argobs.com/en/come-installare-un-impianto-di-videosorveglianza-in-azienda-in-conformita-al-gdpr-e-allo-statuto-dei-lavoratori.md)