Beast to Beauty: The scourge of counterfeiting

摘要

The rapid rise in the number of counterfeit leathergoods seized by customs officials around the world and the impact on both the fashion industry and wider global economy was top of the agenda at the fifth Beast to Beauty conference. Held at Chelsea Old Town in London speakers discussed how fake products, imported mainly from Asia but also increasingly from other destinations, were hitting companies' profitability, duping consumers and in some cases flooding the market with unsafe merchandise. Some of the strategies British leathergoods brand Mulberry adopts to counter the problem were outlined by the company's lead of legal, Kate Anthony Wilkinson. She quoted a European Union estimate that counterfeits from Asia are costing the UK £30 billion and 14,800 jobs per year, while consultancy PwC says it costs the global economy $650 billion per year.