Securing Industry

Every year, companies lose billions of kroner when goods are copied or illegally resold. But a new digital and legally binding fingerprint developed at the University of Copenhagen is claimed to make products impossible to counterfeit. Royal Copenhagen is among the first brands in the world to use the solution. In 2021, counterfeit goods worth $467bn dollars were traded globally. The most well-known counterfeits are luxury goods such as bags, watches and sunglasses.

Four men who conspired to supply illicit and counterfeit pharmaceuticals in the UK via dark net markets and messaging service Telegram have been imprisoned with collective sentences of more than 47 years. The gang are estimated to have made around £4.3m ($5.8m) in Bitcoin payments from selling an array of fake medicines through a rogue online pharmacy, which operated under the SocialPharma brand, according to the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU).

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has revealed details of a seizure carried out by officers in late October that seized high-risk, FDA-regulated ophthalmology products and misbranded prescription medicines. The haul, intercepted in Cincinnati, included orthopaedic injections, rheumatology infusions, cosmetic devices, and cancer drugs that were en route to various locations across the US.

A legal judgment in Germany against an organised counterfeiting ring has awarded "substantial" damages in a suit brought jointly by Amazon and Brother. The Berlin Regional Court ruled in favour of Amazon and Brother in the landmark counterfeit case, finding that 18 defendants were part of an organised counterfeiting network that attempted to sell fake toner cartridges to unsuspecting customers.

A recent survey by the  Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) has found that two-thirds of US consumers are aware that buying medicines online is risky, a 22-point increase in two years. The ASOP Global Foundation 2025 US Consumer Behaviour Survey also reveals the increasing emergence of online purchasing in general, with 38 per cent of those polled saying they purchased prescription medicines online in the last 12 months.

The authorities in India have uncovered a major falsified medicines manufacturing operation in Puducherry dedicated to making sophisticated copies of widely-used drugs. A raid by Puducherry's Drugs Control Department and Crime Branch–Crime Investigation Department (CBCID) seized 34 suspected counterfeit drug batches from an unlicensed warehouse, prompting an alert by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to bring the network to the attention of state regulators.

In an effort to crack down on counterfeiters on its platform, AliExpress teamed up with US cycling brand Specialized on an operation that netted $1.6m in trademark-infringing goods. The two companies collaborated with Chinese law enforcement on the operation, which took place earlier this year and reportedly resulted in two major China-based counterfeiting networks being shut down.

One of Sweden’s most iconic retail brands, department store chain Åhléns, has turned to traceability specialist TrusTrace to help it meet EU regulations on sustainability and traceability.

Antares Vision Group – a global leader in traceability and quality control, ensuring product safety and supply chain transparency through integrated data management – and Spherity, the leading provider of Authorized Trading Partner (ATP) digital credentials, has announced an expanded partnership: Antares Vision will now serve as a reseller of Spherity’s ATP credentials.

Counterfeiting isn't often the focus of major TV drama, but Netflix has brought it to the fore with a new South African show called Bad Influencer. The South African crime series, created by Kudi Maradzika, follows a single mother who teams up with an influencer to sell counterfeit luxury brand bags to get out of debt, and sees here life spiral out of control.