Product and brand piracy causes billions of euros in damage in the mechanical engineering sector, and this has even increased in the last two years. According to the current study "Product Piracy 2020", the annual damage has now grown to 7.6 billion euros - in 2018 it was still 7.3 billion euros. A turnover of this amount would mean the equivalent of almost 35,000 jobs in the mechanical engineering sector. "What is alarming is that 57% of companies report counterfeits that pose a risk to the plant. This shows that counterfeiting is not a trivial offense, as the operation of counterfeit machines or systems with counterfeit components can pose a real danger to the operator," says Steffen Zimmermann, Head of the VDMA Competence Center Industrial Security.

Every two years, the VDMA surveys its member companies on the threats and effects of counterfeiting. In the latest study, which was conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security AISEC on behalf of the VDMA, 74 percent of the companies surveyed stated that they were affected by product piracy, and this figure even reached 90 percent for companies with more than 500 employees - both of which are new highs. "A trend reversal can also be seen in the perceived threat from counterfeiters. While this figure recently fell to 39%, 52% of respondents now reported an increase in the perceived threat level," summarizes Zimmermann. Trade in counterfeit machines and components is particularly flourishing in China, with the People's Republic being named as the most important country for the distribution of counterfeits (61%), followed by Germany with 19%. Russia is in third place for the first time with 12 percent.

Competitors are usually the customers
Most of the companies surveyed named competitors as the source of counterfeits (72%), but business partners such as customers, suppliers or joint venture partners were also seen as the source of counterfeits (41%). Individual parts are counterfeited most frequently (64 percent), followed by design plagiarism (60 percent). Entire machines are also brought onto the market as counterfeits (40 percent).

Companies have little hope of being reimbursed for the damage they have suffered by taking legal action in court. Only 26% of the companies surveyed initiate civil court proceedings at all - compared to 39% in 2018. Around half of those surveyed did not take any action at all. "Small and medium-sized companies in particular seem to be increasingly resigned or shy away from the expense of legal action," says Zimmermann. as