StopFake IS is a new geo-referenced information system that collects and cross-references data on counterfeit goods and organized crime to generate nation-wide reports, maps, statistics and risk analyses. With 300,000 euro funding by the European Commission, it is an effort that involves the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, eCrime, Expert System, INDICAM and Confcommercio Trentino. Every year, the average expenditure on counterfeits amounts to 120 euro per person, mostly spent in the streets, on beaches, in markets.
Almost one in four consumers in Italy bought counterfeit goods in the last year: accessories (belts, bags) and clothing for the most part, which are sold in the streets and on the beaches (40,5%), in markets or fairs (33,5%), and sometimes on the Internet (only for 12,4% of consumers). The businesses who are victims of counterfeiting suffer in terms of invoicing (losses amount on average to 10.7%) and sales volume (average incidence of 14%). StopFake, the new information system recently unveiled in Rome, the result of a multi-year research project, captures the size and effects of counterfeiting and the role of organized crime in the Italian economy. It is a new instrument, equipped with geo-referenced data, that will support law enforcement services, public institutions, companies and not-for-profit organizations in the prevention and fight against counterfeiting.
The data, grouped per year, region, product category, reveal other interesting aspects that are useful to understand the phenomenon of counterfeiting. People buy counterfeits mainly to spare some money. Last year Italian consumers spent around 120 euro per person on counterfeit goods, with an average cost of 28 euro per item. However, counterfeiting harms the business sector in particular, with businesses spending more to pay for damages (10.2% of the invoicing) than investing in security (7.5%). This is a very common reaction for almost all product categories except for the food and the clothing industries. On the other hand, of the companies that adopted an anti-counterfeiting strategy, 38.7% opted for information campaigns aimed at consumers, 26.1% launched initiatives supported by business associations, and 25% chose to improve networking with their suppliers and distributors. This latter option is the most effective to protect and safeguard original products.
StopFake, an integrated data base
The new STOPFAKE integrated data base contains local information on counterfeiting and organized crime combined with information from IPERICO (Intellectual Property – Elaborated Report of the Investigation on Counterfeiting), the integrated data base of the Directorate-General of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development on counterfeiting, which collects data on police seizures on a yearly basis.
The data provide information on counterfeit goods and the risk (real or perceived) for businesses to become victims. They were collected through specific surveys (self-reports and victimization reports) and sometimes with support from the Istituto Piepoli. The data base gathers news from over 50 websites and other relevant social and economic variables (per capita GDP, unemployment rate, presence of criminal organizations). The geo-referenced system of STOPFAKE collects all the data, processes it, and automatically generates reports, statistics, maps and risk analyses on counterfeiting and the involvement of organized crime.
This new tool is available to the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and public and private actors who cooperate to fight counterfeiting. It is easy to use, flexible, and can adapt to different needs and other countries of the EU, with its ability to automatically display and cross-reference information. The system can import new data (for example, data generated by businesses), even in real time through dedicated apps. Most of all, however, the system generates shared knowledge, which is key to strengthen cooperation among all the actors involved in the fight against counterfeiting in Italy and in Europe to propose action, implement prevention measures, launch awareness campaigns and make an assessment of the results achieved.
Project partners and EU funding
The idea behind the project was developed and tested in Italy for the first time in the framework of STOPFAKE, a European project coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (Direzione generale per la lotta alla contraffazione - Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi) with eCrime (Faculty of Law, University of Trento), Expert System, INDICAM (Istituto di Centromarca per la lotta alla contraffazione) and Confcommercio-Imprese per l’Italia, Trentino section. The project continued for over two years (from October 2014 to March 2017), and was co-funded by the European Commission with around 300,000 euro within the ISEC 2013 programme (FINEC Targeted Call) “Prevention and Fight against crime” supported by the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs.
«We have collected quantitative and qualitative data and generated static risk analyses. We have used the latter to develop an innovative IT platform to support public and private actors in understanding the size and the characteristics of counterfeiting in Italy and the role of organized crime. These automatic analyses, which are more and more often shared in real time, allow us to maximize our efforts and our resources in the fight against counterfeiting», explained Andrea Di Nicola, scientific coordinator of eCrime. «The collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and researchers with a background in criminology, statistics, information science, led to new methods and instruments to protect legal markets and Italian products. We hope that this collaboration and the project will continue in the future».
«The IPERICO data base represents a national best practice which has been improved and developed through the STOPFAKE project», commented Francesca Cappiello. «This effort advances the work initiated by the National Observatory on Counterfeiting (Osservatorio Nazionale sulla contraffazione) of the Directorate-General in a number of research areas. The topics span from the involvement of organized crime in the counterfeiting business to the impact of counterfeiting on the economy. From specific investigations on, for example, counterfeiting on the web, to the IPERICO data base, which aggregates and harmonizes data on seizures of counterfeit goods by the Guardia di Finanza (Italian Finance Police) and the Customs Agency, collecting data on the activity of other law enforcement agencies. STOPFAKE will provide targeted answers and action thanks to its precise analysis and its deep knowledge of all the different aspects of counterfeiting, and the cross-referencing of quantitative and qualitative data.
For more information on the project: http://www.ecrime.unitn.it