Why avoid counterfeit goods?
There are lots of good reasons to avoid counterfeit and pirated goods
Counterfeit goods can be hazardous to your health and safety
Counterfeit goods can be dangerous to your health or in other ways, because they are produced without any control by the authorities, and they do not meet safety regulations. This is not only true for medicines, but also for many other types of products - eg toys, spare parts for cars and electrical appliances. Certification marks and authorisations such as the CE mark may also be copied.
IPR Crime leads to lost jobs and harms innovation and growth
IPR crime leads to enormous revenue losses for Danish and European businesses trading the original products and thus also to loast jobs. IPR crime exposes the legitimite businesses to unfair competion from criminals who have stolen their ideas and who will therefore not have to invest resources in product development. Therefore, IPR crime reduces the incentive to innovate and harms the growth. IPR crime also leads to huge losses for the society in general due to lost taxes, lost jobs etc.
Counterfeiting is illegal
It is illegal to manufacture and exploit counterfeit goods commercially. As a principle, both the manufacturer and the distributor of counterfeit goods are acting against the law, when they are trying to sell you a counterfeit.
More information on what is illegal is available here.
Counterfeit goods may be sold as part of organised crime
Counterfeit goods are often part of organised criminal activities. Criminal groups can for example obtain part of their financing through the sale of counterfeit goods. As a consumer, you may be supporting such groups, if you buy counterfeit goods. You eg risk supporting trade in humans, weapon, narcotics or terror.
IPR crime harms all of us. As shown by the examples above, IPR crime is far from a victimless crime. On the contrary, IPR crime is severely damaging to any knowledge society as eg the European countries. The damaging consequences of IPR crime thus harms all of us - even if we have not ourselves been exposed to physical injuri from fake products.