Cos gear up to fight counterfeiting

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New Delhi, Sep 5: With the counterfeiting and fake products business graduating from soaps and detergents to medicines, industrial body Ficci has formed a brand protection committee comprising members from industry majors like Procter & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Nivea, Microsoft, Mercedes Benz and consulting firm KPMG. Bharat Patel, chairman, Procter & Gamble, has been appointed as the committee chairman while Ashok Gupta, executive director (legal), Hindustan Unilever Ltd, has been appointed as co-chairman.

Ficci would be working with the ministry of consumer affairs to address issues and concerns on counterfeiting and piracy.

The brand protection committee has appointed a panel to study the state and union laws and prepare recommendations for policy change where necessary. The committee targets at influencing policy change at the Centre for fair business practices and stringent legal action against counterfeiters and pirates.

A sum of approximately Rs 60,000 crore is earned per year via counterfeiting in India. According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) study, 60% of the pharmaceuticals in developing countries are counterfeited. According to a study conducted by drug controller general’s office, worldwide sales of counterfeit drugs are expected to reach $75 billion by 2010.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) conducted a survey on quality of gold used for designing jewellery in eight big cities of India. The study highlights the sale of 14-carat gold jewellery for 22-carat.

At international level, the International Convention on the Control and Markings of Articles of Precious Metals (Vienna Convention) has its standards and member countries can trade without any quality checks. As India, till now, is not a member of the convention, jewellery exports from India subject to rigorous testing in countries importing jewellery.

Another critical sector under the ambit of counterfeiters is the stainless steel fastener sector. Lack of standardisation, quality guidelines and lengthy, ineffective legal procedures make this practice easy and lucrative for steel manufacturers and counterfeiters. For example, stainless steel-202 (SS-202) grade may be used as SS-316 grade, which is used in medical equipments. The counterfeiter does not add 10-14% nickel to the alloy as required by the quality grade due to increased nickel prices.