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Knockoff
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Knockoff

The Deadly Trade in Counterfeit Goods

Tim Phillips
Kogan Page, 2005
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Well Structured
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

When the voracious consumer society meets the international market in fake goods, the demand is massive, particularly since buyers covet brand image over quality or authenticity. That’s the force behind the billion-dollar market in counterfeit designer goods, but it does not explain the demand for phony industrial goods. That market is based on price alone. The two markets combine to create a huge problem that author Tim Phillips examines at the global level. Phillips certainly has done his legwork, as this book - which is written in a journalistic style that could have been tighter - makes clear. He takes us to flea markets in Russia, warehouses in Manhattan, cottages in China, and the offices of police and regulators worldwide to show how pirated luxury consumer goods, software and industrial parts are bought and sold to suspecting and unsuspecting consumers worldwide. He provides names, places and details of the crimes. getAbstract finds this informative treatment of a pervasive global problem both enlightening and disturbing, and recommends it to people in supply line logistics, branding, corporate intellectual property and law enforcement.

Summary

The Business that’s Bigger than Wal-Mart

While most consumers have come across knockoff handbags and watches, the market in bogus luxury goods only accounts for 4% of the world’s trade in illicit counterfeit merchandise. Other fakes include everything from baby formula and medicine to airplane parts. Accurately gauging the size of the counterfeit market is impossible, but the World Customs Organization estimates the business is worth more than $500 billion, some 7% of world trade. Estimates from other organizations say fake goods account for 10% of world trade. About 36% of all software in use worldwide was purchased illegally. To compare it to a legitimate business, the counterfeit industry is twice as big as Wal-Mart.

Counterfeiting carries a heavy price. It costs legitimate manufacturers jobs, increases child labor, distorts economic development, and thrives in an environment of violence and crime. A few major factors have accelerated its current spread:

  • The Internet makes it easier to transmit digital films and music. The product can be sent in batches, refiltered and assembled again as an exact replica of the original.
  • Tighter international ...

About the Author

Business journalist and broadcaster Tim Phillips has been published in The Wall Street Journal Europe, the International Herald Tribune, the Guardian and the Observer. He regularly appears on the BBC TV and Sky News. He is the co-author of Scoring Points.

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