8 Ways Brands Can Fight Counterfeits in China

Counterfeit luxury goods are big business in China. Together, China and Hong Kong are estimated to be the source of 86% of the world’s counterfeit goods—an amount that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates is worth about $397 billion. Fake merchandise accounted for 12.5% of China’s exports in 2016, according to the same report. But China also has a huge domestic market for fake goods: many consumers who buy counterfeits do so deliberately, because they want to pay a lower price for goods that look expensive. Cracking down on counterfeits can be difficult for luxury brands. Copying techniques have improved so much that some counterfeits now look just like the originals, while online sales make fakes even harder to spot. Large counterfeit manufacturers and distributors keep a low profile. Culprits out in the open are small vendors far down the food chain. They sell counterfeits on e-commerce and social media platforms that do not check whether vendors and merchandise are kosher or (if they do) can be fooled by falsified documents. Chinese law enforcement is not much help either. Vendors who get caught are not punished severely and may soon try again.