In Belgium, 43% of young people have intentionally purchased a counterfeit product and 29% have knowingly accessed pirated content in the past year, according to figures published on Wednesday by the European Union Office for intellectual property (EUIPO). The phenomenon of the purchase of counterfeit products by young people is on the increase at Belgian and European level, underlines the 2022 edition of the scoreboard on intellectual property and young people.
In 2019, only 14% of young Belgians said they had intentionally purchased a counterfeit product. The most purchased counterfeit products in Belgium are clothing and accessories (18%), followed by electronic devices (17%), shoes (14%) and hygiene products (13%).
EU-wide, almost 37% of young people have intentionally bought one or more counterfeit products, which is a significant increase compared to previous results (14% in 2019).
However, young people sometimes also buy counterfeit products because they have been misled: the unintentional purchase rate is also 37%, and respondents admitted that it was difficult for them to distinguish genuine products from counterfeits.
Pirated content
When it comes to digital content, access from legal sources is gaining ground among younger generations. In Belgium, 29% of respondents admitted to having voluntarily accessed pirated content compared to 31% in 2019. The types of content from illegal sources most often consulted in our country are films (64%), followed by series (53 %) and music (35%).
Some 60% of respondents, Europe-wide, said they had not used, listened to or viewed content from illegal sources in the past year, up from 51% in 2019, and 40% in 2016, confirming the trend. The proportion of young people who have been misled and/or who do not know if they have had access to pirated content is close to 20%.
Overall, 60% of young Europeans said they prefer to access digital content from legal sources, compared to 50% in 2019. In Belgium, this percentage rises to 52% of young people.
Price and availability remain the main factors in the purchase of counterfeit and digitally pirated products, but the influence of peers and society is also increasingly important.
