Counterfeiter are costing the global mechanical engineering industry as much as 7.6 billion euros per year, suggest a recent study by the VDMA, the largest network organisation for mechanical engineering in Europe.
The study Product Piracy 2020 says damage has grown in the last two years from 7.3 billion in 2018. The study estimates a turnover of this amount is “equivalent of almost 35,000 jobs in the mechanical engineering industry”.
“What is shocking is that 57 percent of the companies report counterfeits that pose a danger to the plant. This shows that plagiarism is not a trivial offence, because operating fake machines or systems with fake components can pose a real danger to the operator,” says Steffen Zimmermann, head of the VDMA Competence Center Industrial Security.
The study draws a number of conclusions:
- Many counterfeits pose a threat to the operation of machines and plants;
- China remains the main sales country for plagiarism;
- Companies sue product pirates less and less frequently.
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