Trade in Counterfeit Goods and Free Trade Zones

The European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) are carrying out a series of studies on the global trade in counterfeit and pirated products, analysing the impact on the economy, and the share of international trade affected by the phenomenon. In particular, the main goal of this study is to assess quantitatively the value, scope and trends of trade in counterfeit and pirated tangible products.

These studies focus primarily on infringement of copyrights, trademarks, design rights, and patents, but do not cover intangible infringements, such as on-line piracy, or infringements of other intellectual property rights.

The reports follow, complete and develop a previous study from OECD on the Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy, published in 2008.

We hope these findings will support governments and policy-makers in assessing and tackling the economic damage that counterfeiting and piracy create across the world.

António Campinos, Former Executive Director of the EUIPO

Effects and magnitude of the phenomenon

While free trade zones bring real benefits for businesses and host countries, they can facilitate trade in counterfeits due to lax regulatory control. The report shows that the larger the role of free trade zones in a country’s economy, the greater the value of counterfeit in that economy’s exports. The report analyses a unique dataset, which combines data on the characteristics of free trade zones in more than 130 countries with EUIPO-OECD dataset on counterfeit export intensity.