German Automotive Industry Loses €28m Due to Online Counterfeit Activities

The Hague, The Netherlands July 15, 2004 -- An intensive monitoring of online sales of car parts on popular e-commerce sites like e-Bay points out that the German automotive industry alone loses € 28m a year due to the selling of counterfeit parts. Extrapolation of these findings to an industry wide scale, indicate an estimated loss of € 10.9 billion. Further more the automotive industry has to take into account damage caused by threats to public safety and brand image caused by the use of malicious car parts.

Pretection International, a leading brand intelligence firm based in The Hague, Holland, has conducted an intensive survey, monitoring online sales on over 50 popular e-commerce sites during a 6 months time span. Mr. Pein van Noort MDA, head Legal affairs at Pretection International; "Although, we have experienced similar finding in other branches, we were amazed by the extent of the swindle." The Internet enables malicious people to enter and leave the market at ease. You can order counterfeit spare parts or an entire car-body in an instant. At first and even at second sight, you cannot tell the difference. 5% of all transactions on the Internet involve imitation parts. In 15% of the cases the buyer intended to buy original materials, if a counterfeit had not been available. For individual manufactures and brand owners it's hard to identify and track down individual traders and to strike back swiftly. Our monitoring services covers all major online trading place and we're now preparing legal action in behalf of several of our clients.

Monitoring and Legal services
The companies monitor system was already used for keeping track of illegal practices in the apparel industry, representing leading brands as Louis Vuitton and Dupont. Also various brands in the pharmaceutical and entertainment industry employ the monitoring and legal services. It turned its focus to the automotive industry after recent publications regarding severe car incidents involving counterfeit spare parts.

Additional information regarding the survey and the company's activities can be obtained at:

Pretection International,
Kranenburgweg 140, 2583 ER The Hague (The Netherlands)
Phone + 31 70 345 72 75 | Fax+ 31 70 312 28 08
Website: http://www.pretection.com
E-mail: info@pretection.com





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