Building an Anti-Counterfeiting Framework
10 April 2025
“Brand counterfeiting is a growing issue and an evolving issue” stated Jai Tamayo, country head of legal for Avon Cosmetics. Highlighting seizures in the Philippines, he stated that in 2024, US$ 820 million worth of counterfeit goods were seized. Counterfeiting models are expanding, and there needs to be a framework for brand owners to combat the threats that is agile, scalable and future proof, he said.
Using an example from his previous employer, Tamayo explained that the company was losing a lot of market share to a syndicate of counterfeiters who operated approximately seven plants, and that generated over US$ 17 million a year in revenue by copying the top brands from the leading cosmetics companies in the Philippines. The counterfeiters were able to avoid any costs related to research and development, compliance and marketing, which was instead directed towards payouts for government officials. “We must create our own model that can combat this” he said.
With all the creativity in our criminal counterparts, we are really tasked to come up with this framework. We need the framework to be comprehensive from the supply chain side, from the corporate governance side, and from the distribution side, he explained.
“The true challenge as governance practitioners who are charged with upholding integrity in our companies is that we have to embrace the challenge of choosing integrity every day, and that comes at a cost. It is the cost of doing the right thing. To be legitimate can seem harder now that being illegitimate. It often seems easier to be the bad guy and follow a path of counterfeits. We need to embrace the costs of doing the right thing and transform that into the benefits of doing the right thing” Tamayo explained.
Outlining his framework, Tamayo said brand owners should share stories of best practice that other practitioners can learn from, build a network so we can fight counterfeiting and brand violation across the region together, and be authentic and be genuine, he concluded.
Tamayo was speaking at the start of the first day of the Brand Protection Congress in Singapore.
- Darren Barton, in Singapore
