The directive itself will not take effect for another two or three years and its adoption by the member states is likely to take another three years. Until then, the counterfeiters will no doubt continue to do business, even though more and more European countries are addressing the problem internally. In France, the anti-counterfeiting mechanism works quite well, and the UK s Department of Trade and Industry recently attracted attention with the simultaneous launch of an awareness campaign and a website to educate consumers against the dangers of buying fakes. According to government reports, fake perfumes have been discovered to contain unhygienic ingredients including urine, and to cause serious skin irritation. We need to be tough on counterfeiting because, whether it s football shirts or perfume bottles, it frequently comes down to organized crime on a large scale, he said.
Fake goods are at best poor quality, at worst, very dangerous.
It is only by making sure that consumers are properly informed that we can reduce the demand for them.