Students talk counterfeits

ACG engaged with students on a Masters course at Essex Business School, part of Essex University yesterday.

Around 30 students studying Luxury Product and Brand Management heard about the issues brands face in trying to protect their brands and preventing potentially unsafe, poor quality counterfeiter products reaching the consumer. Key issues discussed during the presentation included the threat of a counterfeit economy on intellectual property and how ACG is driving the strategic response.

Students were particularly interested in an exercise called ‘Spot the Fake’ that involved the handling of genuine and counterfeit products. It clearly demonstrated the dangers of counterfeits and the scale of the problem.

Counterfeit goods entering the UK amount to approximately £9.3 billion, equivalent to around 4% of UK imports. Globally this figure is about 2.5% of world imports, so the UK is badly hit. The most counterfeited items are electronic and electrical items & clothing and footwear.