At the Anti-Counterfeiting forum, they discussed ways to combat illegal trafficking of products

The fight against illegal trafficking of products needs to be fine-tuned, as demonstrated by a discussion held on Friday at the Anti-Counterfeiting forum. Last year’s surge in the number of imported counterfeits, which arose against the background of the legalization of parallel imports, has been stopped, but the number of “counterfeits” detected at the border remains significant – 3 million units in the first half of this year. At the same time, business is concerned about the growth of counterfeit products, especially in the field of building materials due to their “falling out” of state control.

The Anti-Counterfeit Forum on Friday became a platform for finding a comprehensive solution to the problem of illegal trafficking of products on the Russian market. Let us recall that one of the key tools to combat this phenomenon has become labeling, which now covers 16 product groups. According to the head of the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (operator of the labeling system) Mikhail Dubin, since its implementation, the fiscal effect on the budget is estimated at 471 billion rubles. Deputy Head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Ekaterina Priezzheva said that with the use of marking, illegal circulation of shoes has been reduced by 30%, perfume products by 25%, and tires by half. Now the marking is expanding to non-consumer products: it is planned to launch it for radio electronics, for titanium products, as well as for cables and fiber optics.

However, despite all the successes of labeling, the problem of counterfeiting does not disappear. The head of the State Duma Committee on Industry and Trade, Vladimir Gutenev, cited data that in 2020, 13 million units of counterfeit products were identified, in 2021 – 7.2 million, and in 2022, when parallel imports began to be more actively used, the figure increased again up to 8.2 million. Let us remind you that we are talking about the possibility of importing goods legalized in May 2022 without the permission of the copyright holder and bypassing official distributors.

Deputy Head of the Federal Customs Service Elena Yagodkina, according to her, “does not directly connect” this surge with the legalization of parallel imports, but still does not exclude that “a number of unscrupulous market participants could perceive this support measure as an opportunity (for the import of counterfeit goods.— “Kommersant”)”. According to her, customs authorities began to pay more attention to goods from the list of parallel imports and now there is no increase in counterfeit goods: according to the results of the first half of 2023, slightly more than 3 million units of products were identified, and damage to copyright holders in the amount of 3 billion rubles was prevented.

Another problem – counterfeit (that is, products with a violation of production technology) – seems more acute, especially in the construction materials sector. As an example, Andrei Lotsmanov, deputy co-chairman of the RSPP Committee on Industrial Policy and Technical Regulation, cited cement: if from 2015 to 2018 it was possible to reduce the volume of counterfeit products in this segment from 8 million to 5 million tons, then after the introduction of a moratorium on inspections, the figure jumped to 10 million tons . He also explained this dynamics by the fact that after the adoption of the law on state control in 2021, the powers of Rosstandart to control the circulation of certain types of building materials were terminated (see Kommersant on February 22 and June 26). So now they are discussing an experiment to return state control over such “unregulated” types of products.

In the consumer goods sector, the situation with counterfeit products is relatively stable. According to the head of Roskachestvo, Mikhail Protasov, the share of counterfeit goods in the total volume of inspected goods in 2022 was 10%, in the first half of 2023 – 11%. “Taking into account the most serious changes in the market – the appearance of 2 thousand new brands on the market, parallel imports, new product groups – the situation was maintained,” he believes. The share of products that do not correspond to the information stated on the label has increased significantly – up to 33% in the first half of the year versus 25% in 2022. Among the reasons for the decline in the quality of goods, Mikhail Protasov named methodological shortcomings and legal gaps in regulation (for example, there are currently no methods for determining the presence of glucose-fruit syrup used in the falsification of honey). A separate problem is the presence of sometimes impossible requirements for products, noted the head of Roskachestvo.

Evgenia Kryuchkova