More fake goods in circulation since start of coronavirus crisis

The trade of counterfeit goods has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, NOS reported. The rise in online shopping has led to an increase in the number of counterfeit products that were sold, authorities said.

“This year there has certainly been a relatively large increase in the number of small shipments that came via international mail or courier that were stopped”, a Schiphol spokesperson told NOS. “The coronavirus crisis plays a part in those figures.”

Products that were frequently forged were clothes, shoes, bags, cigarettes and toys.

The number of forged goods more than doubled in 2020 compared to 2018 to around 850 thousand items. Since the start of the year, an additional 211 mock items were uncovered by the douane.

“We nearly all went shopping online during the coronavirus crisis”, director of the organization React, Ronald Brohm said. React works to fight the sale of counterfeit products. “For counterfeit traders, it has been much easier to offer their products online.”

The sellers of counterfeit goods often get away without barely any consequences. “The only that can happen with the traders is that their advertisement is taken down or that the douane intercepts in their shipment.”

Platforms where forged products were offered often included AliExpress, Wish, Vova and Tokopedia. Around 3.3 percent of products worldwide are forged, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated in 2019 based on the number of counterfeit items confiscated by the douane in 2016.