The Global Trade In Counterfeit Goods Is Pending. Trade Wars Help "Fake Shoes" Sell Well In The US?

Nowadays, fake shoes are becoming more and more easy to buy, and it is more and more difficult to distinguish between true and false.

It is estimated that the market of counterfeit and shoddy commodities has expanded to a trillions of dollars in the world, and the popularity of e-commerce has made the problem more difficult to control.

The Better Business Bureau report shows that footwear has always been considered one of the primary goals of counterfeit goods and is harmful to consumers and brands as well as to the economy as a whole.

The report of the US business improvement bureau also pointed out that in recent years, it has received thousands of complaints due to counterfeit goods, all of which came from consumers who did not intend to buy fake products in online shopping.

Sellers often use real product images stolen from brands and other legitimate sources to make their websites more credible and allow consumers to evaluate their products as authentic products and find out what recourse they have if they buy fake goods.

However, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) survey, few consumers will take action. Only 10% of the victims will complain to the authorities concerned.

Refund through credit card is also very troublesome. Most people just want to verify that the product is fake.

(in Canada, an anti fraud scheme called Project Chargeback simplifies the process and has helped 42 thousand people get a refund of $14 million 700 thousand since its launch).

Ideally, counterfeit goods should be strictly controlled from imports, and the market should be banned. According to the the U.S.Government Accountability Office report, about 88% of the counterfeit goods in the United States come from mainland China or Hongkong, China, but they are not easy to be seized.

Forgeries were found to hide the fake goods under other items (such as fake Adidas sports shoes hidden under napkin packaging); import non brand goods, and then add labels and other identification functions to the goods through customs, such as Nike swooshes and forged bills of lading.

According to the US business improvement bureau, footwear was the top three in the US customs seizure in 2017 (the other were clothing / accessories and watches / Jewellery).

Red Points, a brand protection technology company, surveyed 315 consumers who bought sneakers online over the past 6 months. 20% of respondents said they bought fake shoes online.

Most of them started looking for real products or looking for similar designs at a lower price.

Luxury goods such as Christian Louboutin are also one of the targets of forgeries: in 2012, the US Customs seized more than 20 thousand counterfeit products, which were printed with the designer's trademark red sole, estimated at $18 million.

The Global Brand fake Report released by ResearchAndMarkets, a data services firm, shows that online fake sales bring about $30 billion 300 million a year to luxury brands.

With the beginning of the Sino US trade war, we have reason to believe that the problem of counterfeit goods will deteriorate before it gets better.

Last June, several industry associations, including the American Apparel&Footwear Association, wrote to President Trump, saying that tariffs on imported goods could indirectly help the counterfeit industry.

The letter said: "we are worried that consumers may start looking for cheap counterfeit products instead of spending more money on genuine products.

In other words, the US policy may help to legalize the counterfeit goods at the expense of the legitimate owners of intellectual property rights.

A recent study by company Ghost Data found that Instagram is also increasingly being welcomed by forgeries.

By analyzing 4 million posts on Instagram that contain a label related to fashion brands, the company found that nearly 20% of the contents were counterfeit products.

Fake sellers sell fake Yeezy sports shoes and Gucci Lok shoes on personal data, with an average of 65 million posts and 1 million 600 thousand stories per month.

With the platform's built-in shopping function, it will undoubtedly increase the attractiveness of illegal sellers.