VDMA7.3 billion euros in losses due to product piracy
Product piracy and know-how theft continue to cause considerable damage to German machine and plant manufacturers. China remains the biggest counterfeiter by a wide margin. The VDMA presented the latest figures on this at the Hannover Messe 2018.
From the customer's point of view, the VDMA has observed a slight decrease in reported potential hazards in all categories, with the rate for 'no hazard at all' increasing by 6 percentage points to 39%. However, this also means that the majority of products continue to pose a major risk. In addition to a rate of 46% of all cases in which the counterfeit product endangers the machine or system, in some cases permanently, the direct danger to persons remains at an alarmingly high level of 36%. Environmental hazards are also not negligible at 14%. Dangers to people and the environment can be summarized under the term 'safety', so that half of the counterfeits discovered represent a safety problem. It is also worrying that ...