MADRID, 2 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Association for the Defense of the Brand (Andema) and the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) have supplanted the identity of the Spanish paddler Saúl Craviotto, a five-time Olympic medalist, in an initiative to demonstrate the vulnerability of society to counterfeiting.
Each year, the European Union receives €121 billion worth of counterfeit goods, and more than 60 percent of counterfeits seized in the EU are coming through online trade, according to the EUIPO and the OECD.
In this context, Andema, the SPTO and Saúl Craviotto, together with other well-known faces, have launched an initiative to make society aware of the risks that counterfeiting implies, both in physical and digital commerce.
The distribution of counterfeit products implies serious dangers and consequences such as the destruction of some 50,000 jobs a year in Spain. Damage that is even more alarming if we analyze it from the distribution of unregulated products that can affect health, such as masks, personal protective equipment, sunglasses, cosmetics and children’s toys.
Likewise, the pandemic has caused an unprecedented increase in online commerce and the distribution of counterfeits on websites and social networks has skyrocketed. To raise awareness of this problem and its risks, Andema and SPTO have launched an action through which they have supplanted the Instagram profiles of several well-known faces.
For one day, both organizations took control of the channel of the maximum Spanish Olympic medalist, Saúl Craviotto, and of the Spanish models Xavi Serrano and Eva Basterrechea, generating confusion and uncertainty among users and followers who began to detect inconsistencies regarding their usual activity. .
In this way, Andema and the SPTO have collaborated with these three profiles with potential in the digital field, taking advantage of their ability to convey the message of the initiative to the more than 1.1 million people who follow them on Instagram.
Saúl Craviotto invited his followers to be critical and always look for the authenticity of the products they consume. “Counterfeits cause us to lose our rights as consumers, not only in terms of quality and guarantee, but also in terms of safety and health,” he said.
For Gerard Guiu, CEO of Andema, not only the big luxury brands are affected by this problem. “It is an issue that negatively impacts both small businesses and the final consumer, going through all stages of the value chain.” This fact is intensified in digital channels, according to Guiu, “the typical profile of the counterfeit buyer is usually under 35 years of age and is driven by the aspirational value of obtaining high-end objects at affordable prices.”
“They are motivated by frequent words in social networks like ‘replica’, which is still a fake, and end up falling into the trap,” he said.
Thus, losses in figures pose a significant risk in the business fabric both in our country and internationally. “If we combine the values of the impact of counterfeiting in the cosmetics, pharmacy, wine and gaming sectors in Spain alone, the sum amounts to 2.2 billion euros; a figure that is multiplied if we refer to the European Union, reaching 19 billion,” said José Antonio Gil Celedonio, director of the SPTO.
Through this campaign, and the rest of the awareness actions carried out between Andema and the SPTO, they value the selection of trusted websites with security verification when making online purchases, the use of reliable payment methods and that web reviews are recent and authentic, among others.