These figures are given in the study of the Higher School of Economics, “The main forms of illicit trafficking in consumer markets in Russia and countermeasures,” which HSE experts commissioned by Rusbrand.
The study says that in the total retail turnover in Russia in 2015, the turnover of illegal products amounted to about 9%, or 2,5 trillion rubles.
The authors of the study attributed the unaccounted turnover of products, gray and black imports, parallel imports, counterfeit and counterfeit products to illegal products. For the most part, such products are sold in markets, in small shops and in street trading venues.
The illegal market is structured depending on the type of product — clothing, shoes, cosmetics, alcohol or food products. In particular, the Russian footwear market, according to researchers, is characterized by a large number of counterfeit products, that is, counterfeits for products of well-known brands.
In the course of the study, a survey was conducted, including of entrepreneurs, most of whom expressed the opinion that the quality of fakes is often not inferior to the originals. “Often the quality of counterfeit goods turns out to be absolutely identical to the quality of the original, as a result of which it is impossible in principle to determine whether the product is original without special expertise,” the HSE review noted.
The study also says that it is impossible to distinguish an original from a fake based on the price of the goods, since “products illegally put into circulation can be sold in a significant number of cases at original prices or with a symbolic price difference of 10-15%” .
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