Under the slogan "Fakes cost more", the European Union is to throw its weight behind a global campaign against counterfeiting. A rare Ferrari and kung-fu-kicking monks will help launch the drive in Brussels on Monday.
Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, is to open a counterfeiting summit attended by businesses, charities and campaign groups. He aims to highlight that the practice damages not only big European brands but also consumers and the sweatshop workers involved.
Frederick Mostert, founder of the Authentics Foundation, which organised the conference, said the perception of counterfeiting as a victimless crime had to change.
"There is a much bigger issue. It is the real cost to society: it is supporting child labour, funding organised crime and terrorism. Many of the products are dangerous... Planes have crashed because of fake parts."
Few people had grasped how counterfeiting had moved from small-scale family operations to worldwide smuggling rings, Mr Mostert said. He calculated that the business was worth $500bn (euro 324bn, pound 248bn) annually.
"Anything can be copied, from a Ferrari to toothpaste. The World Health Organisation says 10 per cent of medicines in the world are fake. That is scary," said Mr Mostert.
The Ferrari in question, on show in Brussels, is a P4, a trio of which made a clean sweep of the podium in the 1967 Daytona classic. Those were the only three ever made. Mr Mostert found the fourth in a workshop in rural Thailand. "It makes you wonder about some of the sports cars you see on the streets," he said.
The Thai fakers' ambitious target shows how easy it is to copy designs in the digital age, he said. "With 3D laser technology you can have a perfect copy of something in five minutes."
Even China's Shaolin monks, who invented martial arts, find their name on unauthorised products. Hence their appearance in Brussels to destroy fake goods with their best moves.
EU figures show that seizures of fake goods increased 70 per cent between 2005 and 2006. Cigarettes still account for about half the total but the number of fake medicines is increasing. Such activities cost the taxpayer euro 230m in lost revenue in 2006. Figures for 2007 are still being analysed but a Commission official said: "Asia, and in particular China, is still by far the main source of counterfeit goods."
The Commission has proposed EU-wide minimum criminal sanctions for counterfeiters, including jail terms, for repeat offenders.
