(TÜV SÜD: Munich) -- The European market is being flooded with increasing numbers of counterfeit products. These fakes not only cause financial losses for manufacturers, but also generate major safety problems for consumers when statutory safety tests are sidestepped in their production. TÜV SÜD has joined forces with customs authorities to establish stricter procedures against counterfeiting. Only recently, a load of car jacks bearing fake quality marks and with major safety flaws was impounded at the Finnish border.

“The business of counterfeiting products and quality marks is anything but a peccadillo,” warns Dirk Eilers, CEO of the product services division at TÜV SÜD AG. “Product piracy not only causes immense damage to the economy as a whole, but also gambles with the safety and health of consumers.”

The German Ministry for the Economy (BMWi) estimates that in 2008, product piracy generated damages of 15 billion euros and the loss of approximately 70,000 jobs in Germany alone.

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