The most counterfeited sector in the world is applied directly to your skin

Few products inspire as much trust as a cosmetic. We associate them with personal care, beauty and well-being, and we rarely suspect they could harm us. Yet perfumes and beauty products now top the list of the most counterfeited goods on the planet, and that apparent harmlessness is precisely what makes them so dangerous. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed the GTRIC-p index to estimate the probability that a product of dubious origin is counterfeit; for perfumery and cosmetics, that value reaches 0.9999 — virtually absolute certainty. Understanding why this sector has become the counterfeiters' preferred target — and what real risks it carries — is now a priority for consumers and legitimate businesses alike.

The scale of the phenomenon is considerable and persistent. In its report Mapping Global Trade in Fakes 2025, the OECD and EUIPO estimated that global trade in counterfeit goods accounts for roughly 2.3% of world trade, a magnitude they warn has remained stable and continues to be driven by the same risk patterns (OECD/EUIPO, 2025). Within that universe, cosmetics play a leading role: perfumery and cosmetics became the most affected sector, accounting for 29% of both the number and the value of all seizures (OECD, 2024). Most disturbingly, a significant share of this demand does not stem from deception but from a deliberate choice. The European Union Intellectual Property Office found that roughly one third of European respondents (34%) admit to having knowingly purchased a counterfeit product at least once (EUIPO, 2024.), a figure that doubles among younger consumers, since one in three Europeans considers it acceptable to buy counterfeits when the genuine product's price is too high — a proportion that rises to 50% in the 15-to-25 age group (Marks & Clerk, 2024.). In other words, the low price works as a powerful lure.

The problem is that bargain can come at a steep cost. Unlike legitimate products, counterfeit cosmetics bypass all sanitary controls, and laboratory analyses reveal what hides behind the packaging. The specialised literature warns that counterfeit cosmetics often contain dangerously high levels of heavy metals — lead, mercury and arsenic — as well as bacteria such as E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, capable of causing allergic reactions, skin infections, eye damage, respiratory problems and, in severe cases, chronic organ toxicity (Global Forum DIA, 2025). Authorities confirm this in their operations: laboratory tests conducted by the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) in 2024 on seized counterfeit beauty products detected carcinogenic ingredients, with some samples even containing rodent urine and equine faeces (Lexology, 2025). The commercial scale of the risk is also growing: in 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection together with the FDA seized over 700 million dollars' worth of counterfeit cosmetics, which accounted for 31% of all intercepted fake goods that year (OneArvo Ventures, 2026). Comparable cases in other regions, from Interpol's Operation Pangea to seizures across Latin American markets, confirm that this is a cross-cutting and expanding threat.

For companies and institutions, this landscape poses vulnerabilities that go far beyond lost sales. A cosmetics brand whose name appears on an adulterated product faces not only revenue diversion but direct reputational risk and potential liability linked to health incidents it never caused. The OECD Secretary-General himself has warned that illicit trade threatens public safety, undermines intellectual property rights and hampers economic growth, and that the risks could increase as counterfeiters leverage new technologies to evade detection (OECD, cited in IEU Monitoring, 2025). Addressing this reality demands far more than reactive border controls: it requires commercial intelligence, permanent monitoring of both physical and digital channels, cooperation between authorities and the private sector, and comprehensive brand protection strategies.

At Strategos BIP we work to help companies and institutions understand, anticipate and mitigate the risks of illicit trade and counterfeiting across Latin America and the Caribbean. If you want to know how exposed your sector or your brand is, get in touch: we are your allies against illegal trade.