Research Outline

Anti-Counterfeit Market Analysis

Goals

To understand the anti-counterfeiting market in order to structure a business idea.

Early Findings

  • The counterfeit fashion industry which includes clothing, textiles, footwear, handbags, cosmetics, and watches is worth about $450 billion globally.
  • Louis Vuitton budgets about €15 million annually for its fight against counterfeit product and they have an internal legal department dedicated to the fight.
  • Countries in the European Union lose about "$27.7 billion of revenue annually from counterfeit goods, according to official EU statistics." This represents about 10% of the total gross sales in the industry.
  • Luxury brands in some countries have formed unions to fight counterfeit products. For instance, the Anti-Counterfeiting Group is a "UK-based trade body whose members include Burberry, Michael Kors, Hermès and Jimmy Cho".
  • The Anti-Counterfeiting Group worked with the government in the UK "to find more than 80,000 counterfeit items, with a total street value of £3.5 million (about $4.3 million), though this represents a tiny fraction of the overall trade in fakes in the UK."
  • Most luxury fashion brands are also part of the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, however, Gucci and Michael Kors walked out of the group in protest after Alibaba was allowed to join the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition. Gucci and Michael Kors view Alibaba as one of its major adversaries in their fight against counterfeiting.
  • We were unable to find data on how much Gucci, Tiny Cottons, Bobo Choses, and Michael Kors dedicate to fighting counterfeits annually during our preliminary research.