Counterfeits continue their triumphal march through the Russian market. Three out of four Moscow consumers admit purchasing fakes of one or more products in the past two years. This is the main finding of an interesting consumer survey conducted by the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights.

The chief paradox of the consumer's attitude towards counterfeits is as follows: 90 percent of Muscovites think piracy is evil, while one out of four consumers (19 percent) knowingly sought out fake products to buy. What is the matter? Its turns out that we are clearly less tolerant of certain counterfeit products than others! Eighty-four percent of the respondents said that counterfeit medicines are "absolutely unacceptable," followed by counterfeit food and counterfeit alcohol. On the other hand, more than 19 percent of consumers are much more lenient regarding both clothing and sportswear, and counterfeit music and films. Correspondingly, the majority of the respondents think that the state punishment for counterfeiting should depend on the kind of a product faked.

From a human standpoint, this is understandable. It would be quite disappointing to die because of fake Kristall or low-quality No-Spa (by the way, this vodka brand and this medicine were the most frequently mentioned counterfeit products). But three Adidas stripes placed on sportswear by Vietnamese sewers will do no harm to one's health (unless of course the clothes tear at the seams during a morning run; but this has almost never happened with pseudo-Adidas). Everybody already knows that it's foolish to skimp when it comes to your health. And the protection of trademarks and their taxation are sophisticated concepts. They are more distant from mass consumers than their not very thick wallets, where they don't have enough money to buy a legal CD. Therefore, the first reason for the popularity of counterfeits is pretty sad: they are sold because we want to buy them.

"Some people think it's chic to say among friends that counterfeit products are a blessing for Russia, because many of our poor citizens can't afford genuine products,'' said Piotr Shelisch, Chairman of the Consumer Union of Russia and a member of the State Duma from St. Peterburg. "This is a faulty approach, which deprives our country of a lot of potential. Will creative people want to live and work in a country where at any moment anyone can steel their work? For the state there is no way to wait until the population becomes aware that counterfeit products are acts of theft!" Evidently, efforts made by our authorities have been far from what was expected. Ninety percent of consumers say that there is inadequate information available on counterfeit medicines. It turns out that our legislation wasn't very strict. According to Piotr Shelisch, in January the production of labels, packaging and containers for illegally produced goods became illegal. But it is currently impossible to seize the equipment used by pirates to produce counterfeit products.

It seems to us that attorney Sergey Shevyrev of Moscow regards as a great victory a case revealing a large parcel of Chivas Regal whiskey, which was imported to Russia by the Terminal Service company, to be counterfeit. (The violators were fined 300, 000 rubles). The attorney seems to be showing off: last year 2.5 thousand similar violations were revealed in Russia, and only a few dozen were brought to court. It is virtually impossible to file a criminal case against a particular "pirate." It is either necessary to prove that it was not the first time that the suspect was trading in counterfeits, or to involve the lawful owner of the trademark in the process. The investigators of the criminal militia would probably have the capabilities to deal with that, but the relevant authority was handed over to…. the public security militia of the MVD (Internal Affaires Ministry)!

The third factor that favorably affects counterfeiting is the poor policing of sales. It is not by chance that 45 percent of the respondents buy goods at open markets, 22 percent - in small stores, and only 6 percent at supermarkets and permanent drugstores! In this case it is hard to give any new advice to the customers. A pharmaceutical kiosk, which sells counterfeit aspirin to you today, theoretically might change its location to one of Chechnya's mountain districts the day after tomorrow. Will the trading inspection try to find it there? A permanent pharmacy, which has a trading facility in a particular building, would not want to be inspected by the controlling authorities. This is why it would stay as far away from pirating as possible. Respondents of the survey confirmed this logic. They do not trust retail sellers, and 87 percent of them believe that the sellers have to bear responsibility for selling counterfeits regardless of whether the producers are prosecuted criminally or not.

Finally, a very common but very important factor, which accounts for a great deal of counterfeiting is that fighting them… is not advantageous for the lawful copyright owners! This does not always prove to be true, but it does sometimes. Fighting against counterfeits with the aid of law enforcement authorities always leads to publicity. What will the consumer think when he/she hears that the popular product "X" is widely counterfeited? Of course, he/she will first complain. Then, just for the sake of it, he/she will say: "Just in case, tomorrow I will buy product "Y," instead of possibly purchasing the "pseudo-X" product! I remembered this fact when the chairman of a prominent foreign pharmaceutical company made a speech at the presentation of the aforementioned consumer survey. He strongly demanded that the Russian authorities put things in order as soon as possible. This company has been suffering great losses because of illegal producers. However last year the foreign management quickly dismissed an employee of the company's Moscow office who was responsible for monitoring the appearance of counterfeits in our market and informing the relevant persons about them. This was not done because fewer counterfeit products appeared on the market. This employee had informed the "wrong people," such as the RF Ministry of Health, the public, and journalists.

What Products Are Most Frequently Counterfeited in Moscow?