Nearly Half (44%) Of Canadians Worry That They May Be Mistakenly Exchanging Counterfeit Gifts In Front Of The Holiday Hearth This Season
Further to these sentiments, a majority (64%) of Canadians would like to see the Canada Border Service Agency have the ability to "proactively target and seize suspected counterfeit goods on their own" (rather than with a court order or call to the RCMP). And:
- 89% think "stronger trade laws are needed to help protect legitimate businesses from counterfeit goods entering the Canadian market"; and
- 88% think the "government needs to strengthen intellectual property laws to protect consumers and the companies whose products are being counterfeited".
But, a majority (75%) agree that "many Canadians probably knowingly purchase different types of counterfeit goods because the legal risks are so low".
When it comes to which types of counterfeit products Canadians consider being `acceptable' or `unacceptable' to purchase:
- The top five most acceptable are (ranked): "clothing", "designer handbags", "cigarettes", "music", and "DVDs"; while
- The top five most unacceptable are (ranked): "prescription drugs", "automotive parts", "electronics", "software", and "music".
These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Microsoft and fielded from November 17-21st, 2006. For the survey, a representative sample of 1129 adult Canadians were interviewed via an on-line survey vehicle. The sample used in this study has been weighted according to Census data to accurately reflect the population of Canadians. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 1773.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had this entire population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population.
