Fake Products and Online Piracy: New Trends in Young Europeans’ Behavior
12-Jun-2022
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Source : The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)
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Visits : 1735
ALICANTE - The results of the 2022 EU-wide survey (IP Youth Scoreboard) on the perceptions of IP among young Europeans are out, according to the official website of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
The survey, from the European Observatory, aims to shed light on the latest trends in the use of legal and illegal online sources among Europeans aged 15 to 24, and their perceptions and behaviors towards counterfeit goods.
Results are presented today as part of the Pan European Awareness campaign for the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day.
Purchase of fake products
Reflecting the post-pandemic context, the new survey confirmed that 37 % of young people bought one or several fake products intentionally in the last 12 months, a significant increase compared to the previous results.
The counterfeit products that young people most commonly buy intentionally are clothes and accessories (17 %), followed by footwear (14 %) electronic devices (13 %), and hygiene, cosmetics, personal care and perfumes (12 %).
Online piracy
Intentional piracy remains stable, with 21 % of young consumers (one in five) acknowledging they accessed pirated content on purpose in the last 12 months.
However, access from legal sources is gaining ground among the younger generations:
60 % claimed to have not used, played, downloaded or streamed content from illegal sources in the past year, compared to 50 % in 2019 and 40 % in 2016, thus confirming the trend.
Key drivers
Price and availability continue to be the main reasons for buying fake products and accessing pirated content intentionally. However, social influences, such as the behaviour of family, friends or acquaintances, are gaining significant ground.
What makes young people think twice?
For both products and digital content, young people mentioned personal risks of cyber fraud and cyberthreats as important factors that would curb their behaviours. Also, a better understanding of the negative impact on the environment or on society are now more widely mentioned by the young people surveyed.
This study is the third edition of the Youth Scoreboard series, which was first released by the EUIPO in 2016 and then again in 2019.