How Authentique will Overcome the Counterfeit Industry

Globally counterfeits is costing the luxury industry an insane 1.7 to 4.5 trillion annually. Fake products make up a total of 5% of all goods imported to the EU and in certain regions could make up a total of 40% of all goods sold.

An entire industry is built around the trade of counterfeit goods indeed, more than half (52 %) of Europeans surveyed by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), aged between15 and 24 said they had bought at least one fake product online over the past year, both intentionally or by accident. This is a significant increase compared to the previous results (14 % in 2019).

Flooded with fakes

Consumers are growing wary. 66% of consumers who had been missled after unintentionally purchasing counterfeit goods have lost trust in buying from that brand again. There is a strive for transparency in the supply chains and also has been an explosion of “super-fakes” — high-end luxury items that look exactly like the real thing. According to Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, super-fakes, and counterfeits are so sophisticated because they’re actually made in the same factories with the same raw materials.

If nothing is done to control the production of counterfeits, more and more small businesses and larger brands will suffer. The longer the counterfeit industry is fuelled by fake luxury goods, more innocent people will be harmed by working in dangerous and unregulated working environments.

“Counterfeiters thrive where there is poor governance. It is vital that we do more to protect intellectual property and address corruption.” — OECD

The luxury brands industry are finally developing solutions.

The Aura Blockchain Consortium offers brands the opportunity to explore both public and private blockchain solutions, creating a space where brands can develop trust with their customers and engage them in new experiences. This solution allows consumers to access a luxury good’s history and proof of its authenticity — from raw materials to the point of sale, all the way to second-hand markets.

Mugler recently integrated a digital passport with its physical products, available for purchases in both stores and on the brand's e-commerce platform. Salvatore Ferragamo, iconic shoemaker and brand, has also kickstarted their initiative to fend off fake trade by inserting microchips in the heels of their shoes.

But are current solutions secure enough to eliminate counterfeits?

The thing is, most tech solutions have outstanding intentions but have several drawbacks that prevent it from being 100% secure.

All of these approaches require a physical element to be placed on the item itself — whether it’s a barcode, QR code or even a chip. But these could be copied, removed or tampered with. And what about DPP’s (digital product passports)? Is a record in a database enough to understand provenance?

Above: Authentiques secure digital fingerprinting by Smartphone.

The future is non-invasive

Authentique believes in non-invasive technology.

It’s as simple as taking a photo of that luxury handbag to capture the necessary information — where and when it was manufactured, which store it was bought from, who the previous owner was, and, last but not least — is it authentic?

Compared to all other solutions, our approach leads the way as we completely remove the risks and drawbacks to fully protect luxury goods. In a nutshell, Authentique uses a solution by Veracity Protocol that analyzes the material surface structures of any item with an iphone and uses it for protection and future verification.

Any item’s material structure can be stored as a digital fingerprint. The item itself is the digital record.

Authentique replaces all of the old security elements like chips, tags, QR codes, labels, holograms, and invisible markers.

There’s a $4.5 trillion criminal industry. Now, any business can bring transparency to their supply chain, protect their brand and — most of all — their customers.

Authentiques AI-verification system effectively digitally “chips” items at the very beginning of the production chain, allowing brands to track them and prevent any return fraud as well as having the option to store the digital product passport information on or off blockchain.

The Authentique App uses Vision AI Models developed by strategic technical partner Veracity Protocol to represent the unique material structure of physical objects, providing the highest level of security and authenticity verification. By utilising advanced computer vision and machine learning technologies, the Authentique App creates a unique “fingerprint” for each physical item based on the product’s unique microstructure. This fingerprint is recorded on a tamper-proof blockchain, eliminating any possibility of counterfeiting or fraud. Each object is assigned a Physical Code, representing its distinct material structure, ensuring the highest possible level of authenticity.

Authentique, can upend the resale market: It gives ownership power over an ID, which makes it easy for consumers to track provenance and join the circular market with assurance.

As the counterfeit goods industry continues to expand, Authentique offers a trustworthy intermediary for luxury goods in both primary and secondary markets.

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