The European Commission has adopted a new Intellectual Property (IP) Action Plan to help fight against counterfeiting which includes the establishment of a new EU Toolbox against these practices. The Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (Fesi) welcomes the initiative as “a good first step,” but feels that more action is needed as the new directive mostly relies on voluntary measures.
Neil Narriman, general counsel of Puma and president of Fesi, said that such measures “must be accompanied by clear obligations for intermediaries who facilitate the dissemination and sale of counterfeit goods.” In particular, he expressed hope that the future Digital Services Act (DSA) being prepared by the Commission will include “mandatory preventive and proactive measures” to combat the proliferation of fake products online.
Among other actions, the Commission’s new plan calls for a dialogue with online advertising agencies, social media, domain registration agencies, payment service providers and others to curb commercial-scale infringements on the internet.
It will establish an “EU Toolbox against counterfeiting” based on practices and principles developed in the context of industry-led initiatives. The toolbox should clarify roles and responsibilities and identify ways to work together, notably by sharing relevant data on products and traders. It will also make use of new technologies such as image recognition, artificial intelligence and blockchain.
The Commission’s new IP Action Plan intends to facilitate exchanges of best practices among member states. It will provide a comprehensive training program for their customs authorities to help achieve faster preventive action and identify barriers to cross-border cooperation in this area.
The plan will promote due diligence for responsible supply chain auditing. It will also help small businesses to enforce their IP rights through improved court procedures by looking for the first time into the national schemes that assist them in this process.
Fesi agrees with the Commission that more should be done at the international level to ensure “global fair play,” mentioning in particular the Chinese industry. On the other hand, Fesi regrets that the new IP Action Plan has failed to address the environmental impact of counterfeiting, which tends to breach product manufacturing standards. Once they are seized, counterfeit products must also be destroyed, said Jérôme Pero, secretary general of Fesi, calling for the definition of “a conducive legal and regulatory framework to pave the way for greater cooperation between countries.”
Fesi has calculated that counterfeiting costs the sporting goods industry an estimated loss of €1.1 billion a year, or 7.7 percent of its sales, and 6,579 direct and indirect job losses. It also causes an annual loss in government revenues of around €200 million. Comparatively, counterfeits represented 6.8 percent of imports into the EU of all kinds of products in 2016, up from about 5 percent three years earlier.
