Public Attitudes to Counterfeiting

A recent MORI survey shows that perfume / fragrance (67%), watches (64%) and clothing / footwear (63%) are among the most widely known goods to be counterfeited.

Forty per cent said that they would knowingly purchase a counterfeit product if the price and quality of the goods was acceptable. Among these people, the most popular counterfeit goods to purchase were:

Clothing / footwear		76%
Watches		43%
Perfume / fragrance		38%
Electrical goodse.g. video recorders, hi-fi etc		22%
Alcohol		15%
Car parts		14%
Children's toys		12%
Food		11%
Pharmaceutical productse.g. aspirin, paracetamol etc		5%
Pesticides		4%
None of the above		1%
Don't know		2%

Around a third said that they would contact the local trading standards office if they had unknowingly purchased a counterfeit product. However, twenty nine per cent said that they would not do anything, that they would put it down to experience.

Two thirds (65%) agreed that they were against any form of product counterfeiting and 69% said that the government should do more to tackle the problem of product counterfeiting.

The following chart shows the levels of awareness of the problems that counterfeiting causes:

The government loses millions of pounds in VAT and other taxes because of counterfeiting	61%
Counterfeiting can damage the economic well-being of businesses	57%
Some fake or counterfeit products can put the purchaser at risk of personal injury or death	56%
Counterfeiting is very often one of the most profitable (and virtually risk-free) illegal activities of organised criminals and terrorists and helps to fund drug dealing	39%
None of the above	7%
Don't know	5%

Technical details

The survey was conducted among a representative sample of 996 adults aged 15+ in Great Britain. Fieldwork took place face-to-face, between 26-29 September 1997. Data are weighted to the profile of Great Britain.