As many as 44 per cent of young Finns had intentionally bought a counterfeit.
Young people are increasingly buying fakes online. Mostphotos
More than half (52%) of young Europeans had bought at least one counterfeit product online in the previous year, according to a survey conducted by the European Union Industrial Property Office (EUIPO) in February.
37% of young people had intentionally bought a counterfeit. The popularity of counterfeit products has grown exponentially: in a previous survey conducted in 2019, only 14% of young people had intentionally bought counterfeits online.
As many as 44% of young Finns had intentionally bought counterfeits, more than the EU average. The highest number of counterfeits was purchased in Greece, the lowest in the Czech Republic.
The most common counterfeits purchased online are clothing and accessories, footwear, electronic equipment, and cosmetics and personal care products. Price and availability are the main reasons to buy fakes.
Young people have also been misled to buy fakes. 37% of young people had inadvertently bought counterfeit products.
At the same time, online piracy has become rarer among young people. 60% of respondents had not downloaded or used illegal content. Piracy has been steadily declining in recent years. On the other hand, the number of intentional users of pirated content has remained stable.
The most common illegally downloaded and used content is movies, TV shows, and music.
22,021 young people (aged 15-24) from all EU Member States responded to the EUIPO survey.