Europol and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), on Monday said that 5.8 percent of the products that entered Europe in 2019 were counterfeit items.
They added that it also includes botched products as a trend, they expressed, that flourished because of the Covid-19 pandemic due to the adaptation of criminals to the new global demand.
The joint report, based on data from across the European Union (EU) and operational information from Europol, confirms that counterfeiting and piracy continue to pose a serious threat to consumer health and safety.
They specify that the health crisis has opened up new opportunities for trade in such products.
This study is entitled Intellectual Property Crime Threat Assessment, and explained that imports of counterfeit and pirated products reached 119 billion euros in 2019.
It also highlighted there is a growing trade in counterfeit products that can harm human health, such as medicines, food and beverages.
At the same time, he underlined that more and more adulterated pharmaceutical products have been detected in recent years, ranging from various medicines to personal protective equipment or face masks.
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