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January 27, 2022

Comment:  Has The Covid-19 Pandemic Acted As A Catalyst In Increasing Counterfeit Products In Indian Markets?

Author: Shreya Kunwar

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) has provided an impetus to certain unpopular sectors in which it has brought about unprecedented change. One such sector is the Indian market for counterfeit products. While counterfeit products have existed in our Indian markets since a long time, the spread of COVID-19 in the country witnessed an increased availability of such products. The author believes that the ongoing pandemic has indeed acted as a strong catalyst in increasing counterfeit products in the Indian market. 

The shortage of Covid-19 related necessities especially during the first two waves of the ongoing pandemic had instilled a deep-seated fear in the minds of people. This fear coupled with a strong need for protection and security led to desperate measures to procure and unfortunately, hoard most Covid-19 related necessities. The author believes that it is the ‘dire’ need of  necessities (or in most cases, anticipation of a dire need in future) that has caused the huge imbalance in the demand-supply chains across the globe. This need created opportunities for the production of essential goods that could be made readily available as the demand for such products increased. The huge demand thus led to the production of counterfeit goods by numerous local and small-scale manufacturers and businesses.

The current market scenario has been instrumental in providing opportunities to small-scale manufacturers and sellers of  goods to revive their incomes that were either stopped or significantly reduced during the nationwide lockdowns and subsequent loss of livelihoods. Small businesses have monetized on the need and fear in the minds of people  and created counterfeit products in massive numbers. Even though the gap between demand and supply might have been bridged, the aim to exploit the public at large under the garb of providing cheaper substitutes to life-saving essentials cannot be ignored. This has proved to be quite dangerous as the usage of such counterfeit goods is not effective and efficient to fight against the contagious virus and they are a threat to human health and safety.

The counterfeit goods are being sold with false claims of them being effective enough to lessen the impact of the virus or even save one from contracting it in the first place and  unfortunately, gullible customers fall prey to such false claims. Moreover, besides being sold via traditional trade channels, these counterfeit products are also being sold through e-commerce platforms in India. These platforms have made it extremely convenient for people to purchase desired quantities of such necessities from the comfort of their homes. These online markets are a breeding ground for such sellers of counterfeit products as it is easy for them to target vulnerable customers who might not be vigilant enough to check the authenticity of the source of goods being purchased by them.

It is noteworthy that these are desperate times and not every consumer is mindful to do their due diligence before purchasing essentials online. Therefore, there should be checks and compliances for essentials sold during a health crisis such as the ongoing pandemic. The lack of effective measures towards curbing the problem of counterfeit goods is even detrimental to IP rights that vests in the owners of various brands and stringent measures should be implemented uniformly across the country to safeguard the same. Therefore, the author believes that the current market scenario during the ongoing pandemic has proved to be more conducive to the manufacture and sale of counterfeit products than ever before.

Disclaimer: Views, opinions, interpretations are solely those of the author, not of the firm (ALG India Law Offices LLP) nor reflective thereof. Author submissions are not checked for plagiarism or any other aspect before being posted.

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