Suman Mehta bought a Chanel perfume for Rs 1,500 per 100 ml from a neighbourhood departmental store in suburban Mumbai. It was a steal for her as that particular product would have cost her nothing less than Rs 7,000 at a Chanel store. However, only after using the product she realised that she had bought a fake Chanel as it caused severe burning sensation in the first use, which later turned into a serious allergy on her skin.

 

If you take a small round across these stores in an around the city, you will find several fake products flooding the market and consumers are happily picking up a premium lipstick brand Mac for Rs 400, a Gucci bag for Rs 1,200 and so on. Pester the salesmen a little in these stores and they will tell you the story. These are “duplicate” products from China and Taiwan.

 

According to a recent study by industry body Assocham, the fake luxury market in India is growing at a 40-45 per cent rate annually and is likely to more than double to Rs 5,600 crore from the current level of about Rs 2,500 crore. The body has further said that several web shopping portals account for over 25 per cent of the fake luxury goods market in India.

 

“Over 80 per cent of the entire imitation luxury products in India come from China and majority of these products comprise handbags, watches, clothes, perfumes and cosmetics,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of Assocham. There is an urgent need to educate customers on brand heritage and create awareness about original products as they cannot be substituted, he added.

 

Certification of authenticity and quality of products by luxury goods makers, digital serialisation, authentication, multi-channel protection programme and inclusion of appropriate technologies into product or label are certain effective tools which can be employed by luxury goods’ manufacturers to combat counterfeits, the study said.

 

With the online luxury market worth about Rs 17,000 crore growing at over 20 per cent CAGR, internet has surely evolved as one of the most powerful means for counterfeiters as it provides them with simplified additional channels to promote and sell fake products to consumers, highlighted the industry body.

 

“Many aspiring consumers not able to afford originals deliberately purchase counterfeits as global websites selling fake products ship them after receiving online payment,” he said. Most of these websites delivering fake luxury stuff in the country have their domain names registered outside India’s jurisdiction, Rawat added.

Priyanka.pani@thehindu.co.in 

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