Mulitbillion losses worldwide due to fake smartphones

EUR 45.3 billion lost worldwide due to fake smartphones in 2015

A new report from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), in collaboration with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), estimates that 184 million fewer smartphones were sold by the legitimate industry in 2015, due to the presence of counterfeit devices in the marketplace.

The report estimates that in 2015, 12.9 % of legitimate sales of smartphones were lost worldwide due to the presence of counterfeits in the market – equivalent to EUR 45.3 billion.

The report analysed the number of smartphones sold in 90 countries in every region in the world, based on point-of-sale tracking of consumer purchases.

In 2015, 1.3 billion smartphones were sold worldwide, meaning that approximately one out of every six people on the planet purchased a smartphone that year, at an average cost of EUR 275.

In the European Union, 150 million devices were sold in 2015, one for every three EU citizens. The effect of counterfeiting in the EU-28 is estimated at 14 million units in 2015, corresponding to 8.3 % of the sector’s sales, or EUR 4.2 billion.

Based on the data available, for other regions, 21.3% of sales were lost due to counterfeiting in Africa, 19.6% in Latin America, 17.4% in the Arab countries, 15.6% in China, 11.8% in the Asia-Pacific region and 7.6% in North America in 2015. China accounts for one third of the total global revenue loss in the smartphone sector.

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Press release of the EUIPO

Today´s report is the eleventh in a series of studies released by the EUIPO via the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights into the economic impact of counterfeiting in industrial sectors in the EU. This report is the first study in the series with a worldwide scope. The series previously looked at: the pesticides sector, the pharmaceutical sector, the spirits and wine sector, the recorded music sector, the handbags and luggage sector, the watches and jewellery sector, the toys and games sector; the sports goods sector; the clothes, shoes and accessories sector; and the cosmetics and personal care items sector.

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