Arab World Steps Up Fight Against Swiss Counterfeit Watches

2022-12-26 02:09:03

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Counterfeiting is the usurpation of the literary, artistic, commercial, or industrial property rights of another. Keystone / Sandro Campardo

Efforts to stop counterfeiting in the watch industry met some success in the Middle East in 2022, according to the Swiss watch industry's leading trade association.

This content was published on December 26, 2022 - 12:23 December 26, 2022 - 12:23

Qatar, the recent host country of the World Cup, witnessed the first seizures of fake watches on its territory this year. The operation was one of the highlights of the 2022 fiscal year for the anti-counterfeiting division of The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FH). And, in another Arab world achievement, Egypt seized more than 200,000 fake watches and components this year.

“It is part of the training given to local authorities to make them aware of the problem,' explains the organisation's president Jean-Daniel Pasche in an interview with Keystone-SDA news agency published on Monday.

These trainings have also been delivered in Peru, Portugal, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Saudi Arabia and Poland. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the trainings are held online. Between one and two million fake watches are seized each year, according to Pasche.

Counterfeits sold online

Recent years have seen marked by the rise of websites dedicated to the sale of fake watches. In the United States, domain names selling fake timepieces on the Internet were a focal point for law enforcement efforts in 2022. Authorities there shut down hundreds of sites after being tipped off. The fraudulent website pages are then sequestered and given to the FH, which can then broadcast prevention messages, explains the FH president.

Counterfeiting is a worldwide scourge that affects not only watches, but also medicines, films, music and fashion items. The Swiss watch and jewellery industry are especially affected, with a turnover loss of CHF2 billion in 2018, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The same source noted that the vast majority of 'Swiss fakes' came from China and Hong Kong, followed by Singapore and Turkey.

The Swiss watchmaking sector has seen a surge in exports in 2022.

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