Confesercenti Campania Raise your voice against widespread counterfeiting in commerce, a phenomenon that causes enormous damage to commercial activities that pay taxes, respect the laws and sell legitimate products. According to the Confesercenti Campania study centre, it is estimated that the fake market in Naples erodes around 200 million euros of turnover per year, for a net profit of 40 million taken from the coffers of entrepreneurs who respect all the rules, both with reference to products and with reference to taxes and charges for employees. The army of squatters is made up of at least a thousand units, approximately.
“Confesercenti’s position on the topic of counterfeiting,” he states Vincenzo Schiavo, president of Confesercenti Campania and national vice-president with delegation to the South – is very clear: this is an intolerable criminal phenomenon.
Suffice it to say that criminal organizations have recently been earning more from counterfeiting than from drugs, with the difference that there is much less risk.
Illegal workers, in fact, risk at most the closure of their business and their business license, if they have one, plus a small fine. The fake market develops mainly on the streets, and the thousand-strong army of squatters who sell counterfeit products limits the real economy, waging an unfair war on the real traders. A concrete and timely response from the national government on this issue is necessary, also to increase controls.”
Municipalities have very few tools to control and repress this phenomenon. This is why Confesercenti Campania calls for state intervention
“It is urgent to legislate to limit this phenomenon on which the Municipalities have their hands tied. When the municipal police seize counterfeit goods – he explains Vincenzo Schiavo – first of all has the problem of where to put these products because it is forced to keep them in a warehouse, with an increase in costs for the administrations. Meanwhile, the goods remain there for many years because they cannot be given away, sold or redeveloped since their traceability is unknown and therefore it is not possible to exclude the use of harmful products. This vicious circle becomes only a cost for the State and consequently for the citizens. We urgently need to provide Municipalities with the regulatory tools to be able to seize and destroy such goods, regardless of the type of product and the type of material used. Naturally this should be done using qualified companies for correct disposal. The Italian system doesn’t work and this weighs on the shoulders of honest citizens who work and pay taxes”
The fake market is an atavistic problem with few solutions, to date, and along the streets of Naples we often witness repetitive scenes without a positive outcome.
“Until the problem is addressed seriously, the very sad spectacle that takes place every day in the streets of the center of our cities will continue: the police pass by and the squatters go away, taking their counterfeit products with them; the police go away and these gentlemen, almost all foreigners, return to their illegal positions, mocking the police who in turn, unfortunately, know that they cannot seize the goods because they don’t know where to put them”.
Along with this phenomenon, other parallel problems are also developing, which always falls within the scope of counterfeiting and the systematic violation of the law and trade rules.
“Urgent measures are needed – he underlines Slave – also to counter the habit of some large structures hosting wholesalers who instead sell retail. Serious and urgent rules are also needed with reference to the use of social media. On Tik-Tok, for example, there are many people who sell counterfeit products of all kinds, creating enormous difficulties for regular traders who feel helpless. The State should decide whether to be on the side of entrepreneurs, protecting and defending them, or remain in that gray area where those who can do it, those who can’t don’t do it!”.
Tags: Counterfeiting alarm Confesercenti Campania fake market takes million turnover year
