Inside 2 Billion Product Scans: What the Data Reveals About Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting statistics now describe a measurable global economy, not a niche nuisance: global trade in counterfeit goods reached an estimated USD 467 billion in 2021, equal to 2.3% of all world trade, according to the OECD and EUIPO Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025 report. Counterfeit products also carry a human cost, because the World Health Organisation estimates that at least 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. For any brand owner, those figures set the stakes: fake goods drain revenue, expose consumers to unsafe products, and erode the trust your customers place in your label.
This report reads the data on two levels: the independent global and India figures that quantify the problem, and the patterns we see across the products we protect. Acviss reports having protected more than 2 billion products across 80+ brands in 11+ countries (company figures), which gives us a wide, anonymised view of how counterfeiting behaves.
TL;DR:Counterfeiting is a $467B global issue that has moved online, deceiving nearly 70% of digital shoppers and putting vital sectors like medicine at risk. However, data from 2B+ scanned products shows fakes follow predictable demand and pricing patterns, enabling brands to detect and stop threats early.
How big is the counterfeiting problem, and what do the numbers say?
The clearest numbers on counterfeiting come from customs data. The OECD and EUIPO Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025 report estimates that counterfeit and pirated goods reached USD 467 billion in international trade in 2021, or 2.3% of all world trade, and puts EU counterfeit imports at 99 billion EUR, equal to 4.7% of EU imports. Those numbers are revenue taken from legitimate manufacturers and tax lost to public budgets.
The mix of fakes tells you where the risk concentrates. Clothing, footwear and leather goods together made up 62% of seized counterfeit goods, and China accounted for 45% of all reported seizures in 2021, according to the OECD and EUIPO press release. Those seizures increasingly move in small parcels and mail rather than shipping containers, so your brand faces thousands of small entry points instead of a few large ones.
Where do counterfeit products actually reach people now?
Counterfeit products increasingly reach buyers through a screen, not a shelf. A 2023 Michigan State University anti-counterfeiting consumer survey found that nearly 7 in 10 people unknowingly bought a counterfeit online at least once in the past year, most often on e-commerce websites (39%) and social media (39%), with 68% of social-media fakes bought on Facebook. Your counterfeit problem now surfaces on marketplaces and social feeds well before it ever reaches physical retail.
In India, online aggregator platforms have become the single biggest channel for fakes, accounting for around 53% of counterfeit purchases, according to the ASPA and CRISIL State of Counterfeiting in India 2025 survey reported by Fortune India. That survey comes from an industry association of authentication providers whose governing body includes our own founder at Acviss, so we treat its numbers as an attributed survey estimate, not an independent measurement.
What do counterfeit-product rates look like across India's sectors?
India's counterfeit rates vary sharply by sector. FICCI CASCADE's 2024 illicit-trade study estimates that apparel counterfeiting runs between 30 and 40%, citing the CRISIL and ASPA State of Counterfeiting in India research. The same study finds that packaged foods have shifted toward processed items and oils, a category where as much as 28% of products face counterfeiting risk. If you sell food or apparel, those rates mean roughly one in three items a shopper sees may not be yours at all.
The ASPA and CRISIL 2025 survey reported by Fortune India adds consumer-encounter data: around 35% of urban consumers reported meeting a fake in the past year, with apparel at 31%, FMCG at 27%, and automotive components at 22%. Because that survey carries the commercial-stake caveat above, read those shares as directional. The table below sets the independent and survey figures side by side, showing which rest on customs data and which on consumer perception.
Why are counterfeit medicines the highest-stakes category of all?
Some counterfeiting numbers measure lost revenue; the medicine numbers measure lost lives. The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, and that countries spend around US$ 30.5 billion each year on these products. In pharmaceuticals, a counterfeit is not a lost sale; it is a patient who took the wrong molecule.
The danger extends beyond medicine. The OECD and EUIPO report warns that counterfeiters are expanding into hazardous categories, including automotive parts, cosmetics, toys and food. Each carries a physical safety risk that a fake handbag does not, so when counterfeit goods move from apparel to brake parts, the cost of weak authentication stops being financial.
What can 2 billion product scans reveal that market surveys cannot?
Market surveys count how many fakes exist; our scan data at Acviss shows where and when they appear. Across the more than 2 billion products we protect at Acviss, counterfeiters do not target every product equally: they concentrate on high-demand SKUs, premium variants, and products that carry established consumer trust, which lets your team anticipate the next target. The independent seizure data runs the same direction, because clothing, footwear and leather goods alone made up 62% of counterfeit goods seized.
The timing and geography follow rules too. In our scan data at Acviss, counterfeit activity rises during seasonal demand spikes, product launches, and supply shortages, and clusters in regions with fragmented distribution and thin supply-chain visibility. That geography matches the border record, with China accounting for 45% of all reported counterfeit seizures in 2021, per the OECD and EUIPO Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025 report.
One pattern matters more than the rest: in our data at Acviss, online counterfeit listings routinely surface before a brand notices any offline distribution problem. That head start makes digital monitoring your earliest warning that a counterfeiter has moved, well before the fake reaches a physical shelf.
One finding sits at the centre of everything we see at Acviss: counterfeiting is rarely random, because it follows predictable distribution, pricing, and demand patterns. Across the products we protect at Acviss, brands that combine authentication, traceability, and online monitoring detect these patterns earlier than brands relying on isolated, single-point security.
How do brands turn counterfeiting data into action?
Counterfeiting data earns its value when it changes what your brand does next. The independent numbers show why no single defence suffices: the OECD and EUIPO found around 65% of counterfeit seizures now move through small parcels and mail, a low-inspection channel a physical label alone cannot police. No single layer catches everything: a secure label alone will not find a fake listing on a marketplace, and monitoring alone will not prove a physical unit genuine.
At Acviss, our products map to three gaps by function:
Certify lets a buyer confirm a unit is genuine before they pay for it. The shopper checks a unit-level non-cloneable identity in seconds through a web page, an app, or WhatsApp with no download, so a fake is caught at the point of sale instead of after a complaint. Every one of those checks becomes a data point you can read, and that check is the mechanism that makes the scan intelligence in this report possible.
Origin shows you where your genuine stock goes off-route. It serialises each unit, case, and pallet, then tracks their movement across the supply chain, so you catch the diversion and grey-market leakage that raw sales figures hide. That off-route movement is where an insider distribution problem first shows itself.
Truviss catches a counterfeit listing before it costs you a sale. It watches marketplaces, domains, and social platforms for fakes and runs takedown workflows with human review. Because online listings routinely surface before any offline problem, this closes the digital blind spot that most brands find out about too late.
The pattern across every credible figure is consistent: fakes follow demand, move online first, and hit safety-critical categories hardest. Your defence holds when authentication, traceability, and monitoring share the same data, which is the shift from counting counterfeits to predicting them.
FAQ: Common questions about counterfeit products and counterfeiting statistics
What are the latest counterfeiting statistics?
The headline counterfeiting statistic is USD 467 billion, the value the OECD and EUIPO Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025 report assigns to global trade in counterfeit and pirated goods in 2021, equal to 2.3% of world trade. The same report puts EU counterfeit imports at 99 billion EUR, or 4.7% of EU imports.
On the safety side, the World Health Organization estimates that at least 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. At Acviss, we read these independent numbers as the baseline risk behind every product we protect, which is why brands now track counterfeiting data as a core risk metric.
How much counterfeiting happens online?
Online channels now carry a large and growing share of counterfeit sales. A 2023 Michigan State University consumer survey found that nearly 7 in 10 people unknowingly bought a counterfeit online at least once in the past year, split evenly between e-commerce websites (39%) and social media (39%), with 68% of social-media fakes bought on Facebook.
In India, the ASPA and CRISIL State of Counterfeiting in India 2025 survey reported by Fortune India put online aggregator platforms at around 53% of counterfeit purchases. That survey carries a commercial-stake caveat, because it comes from an authentication-industry association connected to Acviss, so read it as a directional estimate rather than measurement.
How big is the counterfeit products problem in India?
India's counterfeit problem runs deep in specific sectors rather than evenly across the market. FICCI CASCADE's 2024 illicit-trade study estimates apparel counterfeiting at 30 to 40% and finds that packaged foods, especially processed items and oils, face counterfeiting risk as high as 28%.
A separate ASPA and CRISIL 2025 survey reported by Fortune India found that around 35% of urban consumers met a fake in the past year, with apparel at 31%, FMCG at 27%, and automotive components at 22%, though it carries a commercial-stake caveat. The independent FICCI CASCADE figures and the attributed survey both point to apparel, packaged food, and FMCG as your greatest counterfeit-exposure sectors in India, which is where we concentrate the brands we protect at Acviss.
Which industries are most affected by counterfeit products?
Apparel, medicines, packaged food, FMCG, and automotive components are the industries counterfeiting data flags most consistently. Globally, the OECD and EUIPO report that clothing, footwear and leather goods made up 62% of seized counterfeit goods in 2021.
In India, FICCI CASCADE's 2024 study puts apparel counterfeiting at 30 to 40%, and the World Health Organization estimates at least 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified. The OECD and EUIPO also note counterfeiters expanding into hazardous goods such as auto parts. Counterfeit risk tracks consumer demand and trust, so premium and high-volume lines need protection first. At Acviss, the products we protect concentrate in apparel, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, and automotive components for that reason.
Are counterfeit medicines really that common?
Yes. Counterfeit and substandard medicines are common enough to rank among the most dangerous counterfeiting statistics, with the World Health Organization estimating that at least 1 in 10 medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, and that countries spend around US$ 30.5 billion a year on them.
Falsified medicines frequently move through unauthorised online pharmacies and informal markets. Unlike a counterfeit accessory, a falsified medicine can send a patient the wrong dose or molecule, which is why pharmaceutical brands treat unit-level authentication and traceability as a safety requirement, not a marketing feature. At Acviss, we build unit-level non-cloneable identity for exactly this reason, so a pharmaceutical brand can confirm a pack is genuine before a patient relies on it.
How do brands detect where counterfeiting is happening?
Brands detect where counterfeiting happens by giving each product a verifiable identity and reading the verification data it generates. At Acviss, Certify assigns each unit a non-cloneable identity that consumers check through web, app, or WhatsApp; Origin serialises and traces each unit, case, and pallet to expose diversion; and Truviss monitors marketplaces, domains, and social platforms for counterfeit listings.
Because every genuine unit carries a unit-level non-cloneable identity, that data reveals patterns market surveys miss, including which SKUs counterfeiters target and where activity clusters. Across the more than 2 billion products we protect at Acviss, it often surfaces online counterfeit listings before a brand notices any offline problem, so a brand sees the threat while it can still act on it.