The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (Fesi) has launched an awareness campaign relating to online purchases of counterfeit sporting goods, with financial support from the European Union.
“Score the real thing” chiefly consists of videos to be disseminated through social media about the dangers of buying counterfeit goods. Instead of patronizing the public about the legal implications, the campaign highlights the dangers of handing out credit card details to dodgy websites or the embarrassment of offering products that may turn out to be defective or unsafe.
The timing is meant to coincide with the run-up to the European football championships, which often leads to a spike in sales of fake football team jerseys, but the campaign features animated videos relating to golf and running products as well. Neil Nariman, chairman of Fesi's committee on intellectual property rights, is to give a presentation on the matter in Paris on June 8 for the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day project, along with speakers from Nike, Adidas, Uefa, the French federation of sporting goods suppliers (Fifas) and several other organizations.
Fesi is also involved in a Europol program to seize domain names of companies that focus on online sales of counterfeit products. The federation is asking its members to share the details of websites, which they think are infringing, to be passed on to Europol as part of its wider program on counterfeits.
A similar initiative was organized last year but the number of tips contributed by Fesi was then limited to 20. This time Europol has refrained from setting any limits for referrals from the sporting goods federation, which should substantially broaden the scope of the action. An initial deadline for referrals was set for May 27 and a second list will be drawn up in September.
