BusinessToday Previous Editions

5 NEWS 15.6.2023 Half of young consumers in EU find it acceptable to buy fakes EUROPEANS are increasingly aware of the risks and conse- quences of buying counterfeits and accessing content from illegal sources, according to a new study on the perception of citizens towards intellectu- al property published today by the European Union Intellec- tual Property Office (EUIPO). 80% of Europeans believe that criminal organisations are behind counterfeit prod- ucts and consider that buying counterfeits ruins businesses and jobs. 83% of respondents also believe that it supports unethical behaviour and two thirds see it as a threat to health and safety and to the environment. In terms of piracy, 82% of Eu- ropeans agree that obtaining digital content through illegal sources entails a risk of harm- ful practices (scams or inap- propriate content for minors). Despite these positive re- sults, the study also reveals that 1 in 3 Europeans (31%) still find it acceptable to pur- chase fake goods when the price for the original is too high, rising to half (50%) in the case of younger consumers aged 15-24. Moving on from belief to ac- tion, 13% of Europeans report having bought counterfeits intentionally in the last 12 months. is figure goes up to 26% for those aged 15 to 24, twice the EU average, while it drops to 6% in the 55-64 age group and below 5% among those aged 65 and older. On a country level, the pro- portion of consumers that have intentionally purchased fakes varies from 24% in Bul- garia to 8% in Finland. Apart from Bulgaria, buying fakes intentionally is above the EU average in Spain (20%), Ireland (19%), Luxembourg (19%), and Romania (18%). A lower price of original products remains the most mentioned reason (43%) to stop buying fakes. e risk of bad experiences (bad quality products for 27% of people, safety risks for 25%, and pun- ishment for 21%) is also a key driver to stop consumers from buying fakes. Digital piracy and sports events Europeans are generally op- posed to the use of pirated content: 80% say that they prefer to use legal sources to access online content if an af- fordable option is available. In fact, almost 9 in 10 people are aware of at least one type of legal content offer in their country and more than 4 in 10 Europeans (43%) have paid to access, download or stream copyright-protected content from a legal service in the past year. However, a large majority of people (65%) consider it ac- ceptable to pirate when con- tent is not available on their subscription. Moreover, 14% of Europeans admit to having intentional- ly accessed content via illegal sources in the last 12 months. e percentage rises to 1 in 3 (33%) for young people aged 15 to 24. is was especially the case to watch sports, us- ing illicit streaming devices or apps. e proportion of people ac- cessing pirated content also varies per country, ranging from 9% in Finland and Den- mark to 22% in Malta. Better affordability and a wider choice of content from legal sources are the most mentioned reasons for moving away from pirated content. European Union European Union European Union ONLINE CONTENT - PIRACY LEGAL SOURCES 51% 43% 32% 31% 25% 27% 22% 78% 14% 86% Yes No 73% 68% 64% 44% 35% 40% 32% 27% MALTA Top 3 items Which of the following have you done? - yes EUROPEAN CITIZENS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: PERCEPTION, AWARENESS, AND BEHAVIOUR 2023 IP Perception study - highlights Perception of legal offers Online behaviour Access of content from illegal online sources Reasons to stop downloading content from illegal sources Top 3 items Awareness of legal offers Top 3 items Totally agree + tend to agree Among the type of content listed below, for which one(s) are you aware of legal offers to access or download them on the internet? Whenever there is an affordable legal option I prefer to access/ download/ Content that I'm interested in was available via legal sources Because doing so would have caused harm to the musicians, writers, artists, creators… Better affordability of content from legal sources Paid to access, download or stream copyright protected content from a legal service on the internet or from Pay TV operators Wondered if a source where you could access/download or stream music or videos was legal or not Researched to check if a source where you could access/download or stream music or videos was legal or not Accessed or downloaded or streamed content from illegal sources intentionally in the last 12 months Malta Malta Malta Films

• Cover