The survey, from the European Observatory, aims to shed light on the latest trends in the use of legal and illegal online sources among Europeans aged 15 to 24, and their perceptions and behaviours towards counterfeit goods.

Results are presented today as part of the Pan European Awareness campaign for the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day.

Purchase of fake products

Reflecting the post-pandemic context, the new survey confirmed that 37 % of young people bought one or several fake products intentionally in the last 12 months, a significant increase compared to the previous results.

The counterfeit products that young people most commonly buy intentionally are clothes and accessories (17 %), followed by footwear (14 %) electronic devices (13 %), and hygiene, cosmetics, personal care and perfumes (12 %).

Online piracy

Intentional piracy remains stable, with 21 % of young consumers (one in five) acknowledging they accessed pirated content on purpose in the last 12 months.

However, access from legal sources is gaining ground among the younger generations:

• 60 % claimed to have not used, played, downloaded or streamed content from illegal sources in the past year, compared to 50 % in 2019 and 40 % in 2016, thus confirming the trend.

Read the full report here.