Study: Romania loses EUR 830 million annually due to counterfeiting

Newsroom 05/12/2016 | 14:05

Every year, Romania loses EUR 830 million directly as a result of counterfeiting, with medicines being the most affected sector, a series of studies by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) reveals.

According to the data, published as part of an awareness campaign by the EUIPO, launched on December 5, EUR 83 billion and 790 000 jobs are lost every year across the EU due to counterfeiting and piracy. Specifically, 7.4 percent of sales in nine sectors are lost due to the presence of fakes in the market, with clothes, toys, sports goods, jewellery, handbags and music among the sectors most affected.

It is estimated that EUR 830 million is directly lost annually as a result of counterfeiting in the sectors identified, amounting to 15.9 percent of their sales. This translates into 26,600 jobs directly lost in these sectors, the study shows. In Romania, the medicines sector is the most affected, with lost sales accounting for 16.6 percent of legitimate sales and four times the EU average. Medicines is the sector with highest lost sales due to counterfeiting in absolute terms accounting for more than half of lost sales in all sectors.

Romania is the 2^nd country most affected by lost sales due to counterfeiting, more than double the EU average.

The studies were carried out by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) through the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights.