The summer awareness campaign on the consequences of counterfeiting by the Union of Manufacturers (UNIFAB) was launched this Wednesday morning at Nice City Hall, in the presence of its president Christian Peugeot, the mayor of Nice Philippe Pradal, and Marie Catherine Kuntz, deputy director of Nice customs.
Supported by a hundred students trained to prevent counterfeit products, UNIFAB has launched this campaign running from July 11 to August 15 to advise and guide e-consumers on how to avoid the massive counterfeit traps offered on the internet.
According to Christian Peugeot, counterfeiting has been industrialized over the last decade by organized crime groups, who profit from and even fund terrorist groups. “The Kouachi brothers were counterfeiters of sports products.”
This industrialization allows “through new distribution means like the internet, to flood customers with counterfeit products, therefore deceiving them about their nature. The new websites appear ‘real’ and are attractive, so something needs to be done about this.”
This summer, UNIFAB teams will travel the beaches and markets of southern France, from the Basque Country to the French Riviera, offering various conferences or handing out flyers with the slogan: “Real photos, fake products: watch out for counterfeiting on the internet.”
The mayor Philippe Pradal, a chartered accountant and statutory auditor by profession, is deeply involved in this cause and asserts: “Counterfeiting kills.” Nowadays, the issue is not only about the loss and missed exceptional margins for luxury brands, but it goes far beyond that. Counterfeiting poses a security and health problem. Apart from financing terrorism, in 2015 the main national seizures of counterfeits by customs services amounted to 7.7 million products, including 173,000 fake medicines.
Marie Catherine Kuntz holds a position at the Nice customs office. Her department has already intercepted 21,000 products since the beginning of 2016. For her, regulatory services must improve in terms of internet and “darknet” control.
The latter being a sort of private internet, accessible to a few individuals. Because in the other distribution networks, the catch is good: “40% of postal packages and ‘express freight’ contain counterfeits.”
Recently, her service has already recovered nearly 4,000 counterfeit items related to Euro 2016. “It’s a relentless fight, and we carry it out with rigor and consistency.”
Thibault Bourru
