Report: Counterfeit goods cost Croatia's economy €334 million in lost revenues

The report, which was compiled from estimates of the size of the counterfeit goods market across 11 product categories, indicates a drop in the value of counterfeit sales over the last 12 months, as the previous report published in June 2018 had put the damage to Croatia's and EU's economies at €398 million and €60 billion respectively.

The top five groups in terms of the size of the counterfeit goods market are clothing (€123 million), medicines (€99 million), smartphones (€45 million), cosmetics (€28 million), and wine and spirits (€16 million).

By the share of counterfeit goods eating up legal sales revenue, the top categories are smartphones (15 percent) followed by clothing (13.5 percent), and cosmetics (10.1 percent).

EUIPO experts calculated that in Croatia the counterfeit market accounted for 10.7 percent of all retail sales, and that this translated to an economic damage of €80 per capita in lost revenue, as well as nearly 4,000 jobs.

In the EU as a whole, counterfeit goods are thought to account for €110 in lost revenue per capita, and estimates say that counterfeit trade resulted in 468,000 jobs lost across all 28 member states.

"Our research work shows how counterfeiting and piracy can put growth and jobs at risk. We carry out this analysis, and our wider body of research, to support policy makers in devising solutions to this problem,and to help make EU consumers aware of the economic consequences of counterfeiting and piracy at a wider level," said Executive Director of the Alicante-based EUIPO, Christian Archambeau.

Highlighting the problem of counterfeit goods, EUIPO said that industries particularly vulnerable to intellectual property rights violations are estimated to earn €5.7 trillion every year, or more than 40 percent of EU's total GDP, and account for about 28 percent of all employment in the bloc.

It is estimated that some €121 billion of counterfeit goods get imported into the EU every year, amounting to 6.8 percent of all imports.

A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and EUIPO examined trade routes used for counterfeit goods, and determined that while countries such as China, India, Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia, and Pakistan were major producers of counterfeits, others like Hong Kong, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Albania, and Ukraine were important transit points in the global counterfeit trade.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.