Millions of Europeans illegally attend sports events and buy counterfeit sports equipment, costing manufacturers €850 million, an amount corresponding to 11% of sales losses.

This is noted in an announcement by the Industrial Property Organization (OBI), on the occasion of the campaign launched today by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) “Play Fair” (Spring Campaign on IP Infringement and Sports) as the world sports events begin, so it is urged fans to watch official broadcasts and purchase authorized merchandise.

As underlined, this year, Europe is at the center of all sporting events. The world is preparing to watch spectacular goals during UEFA EURO 2024, photo finishes at the Tour de France and gold medal moments at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. But as Europeans prepare to watch the biggest sporting events, millions of them may be doing so illegally. According to an EUIPO study on the perception, awareness and behavior of EU citizens, 12% of EU citizens have accessed or live streamed content from illegal sources for sporting events. When it comes to 15-24 year olds, over a quarter (27%) admit to using illegal online channels to watch sports events.

Beyond the broadcasting rights of major sporting events, intellectual property (IP) is everywhere: from the Olympic rings, the names and effigies of top athletes, to the sports equipment of the competitors, official mascots and event memorabilia.

As highlighted in the announcement, where there is money and millions of viewers and consumers, fraudsters have an opportunity to make a profit. Illegal live streaming affects all types of content — including sporting events — and the EUIPO estimates that piracy across all media generates illegal revenue of €1 billion a year.

But the problem of live piracy poses an existential challenge to sports funding. Revenues generated from intellectual property rights are redistributed to the sports movement and athletes on the basis of solidarity.

Furthermore, apart from sports broadcasts, according to the EUIPO, the EU sports equipment sector faces sales losses of €850 million per year. This figure does not include sports goods such as counterfeit football shirts and sports shoes, which represent a significant part of the total estimated €12 billion of counterfeit clothing in Europe annually.

EUIPO Executive Director João Negrao said: “As we enjoy the thrill of competition this summer, it is extremely important that we play fair, both for the players on the pitch and for the spectators at home. The IP rights behind these events protect and enhance our experiences as sports fans, support our athletes and inspire the future champions of Europe and the world. By watching official broadcasts and purchasing licensed merchandise, we ensure that our favorite sports continue to thrive for generations to come.”

Emma Terho, president of the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Committee, had stated during the EUIPO conference on combating online piracy of sports and other live events in October 2023: “If sports fans watch live sports events through illegal streaming flow, the overall model of solidarity financing of the Olympic movement is put at risk. Media rights would lose their value and media owners would stop acquiring media rights with huge consequences for the solidarity funding model of the entire Olympic movement.”

Almost half of young people stream illegal sporting events in some countries

EUIPO’s IP Perception study revealed significant trends across the European Union in online piracy of live sporting events, with 12% of the total population accessing or live streaming content from illegal online sources for watching sports events.

Bulgaria is the country where the practice is most widespread in the EU, with 21% of all respondents admitting to using illegal online sources to watch sporting events, followed by Greece (20%), Ireland (19 %), Spain (19 %) and Luxembourg (18 %).

According to the study, younger citizens aged 15-24 reported illegally watching sporting events online at twice the rate of the general population. Young people from Bulgaria are most likely to participate in illegal sports live streaming at 47%, well above the EU average of 27%, followed by Spain (42%) and Greece (41 %), Slovenia (39 %) and Ireland (34 %).

According to EUIPO’s study on the infringement of intellectual property rights on the internet, live streaming is the most popular method of accessing illegal TV content – 58% of piracy in the EU takes place via live streaming and 32% by downloading from the internet.

Counterfeit Sports Goods: The €850m Problem

According to EUIPO’s Intellectual Property and Youth Scoreboard, on average 10% of EU youth aged 15-24 admit to deliberately buying counterfeit sports equipment, with this phenomenon being more common among of Greek youth — 18% of whom have done so. In contrast, 7% of young European consumers have mistakenly bought counterfeit products.

According to the EUIPO’s calculations, the impact of these sales of counterfeit products in the EU is significant and causes an estimated total loss of EUR 851 million per year, which corresponds to 11 % of the sector’s total sales. France, Austria and the Netherlands face the biggest financial losses, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros each. In terms of proportional impact, Romania, Lithuania and Hungary are hardest hit, with counterfeit sports equipment accounting for up to 20% of total sales losses in each country.

Counterfeiting has serious economic and social consequences. In addition to revenue losses and job destruction, as evidenced by another recent EUIPO study on the economic impact of counterfeiting in the EU clothing, cosmetics and toy sectors, companies suffer from reputational damage of their brands due to lower-quality copies, and European economies are seeing growing skepticism about the soundness of investing in innovation — a major threat to the continued growth of a healthy economy.

Counterfeit products also pose serious risks to the health of consumers and do not comply with European standards for health, safety and environmental protection. As pointed out in the EUIPO and OECD study on dangerous goods, counterfeit sports equipment products can fail at critical moments and also contain toxic or dangerous ingredients.

Fighting live event piracy

Live event pirates have a variety of methods for promoting unauthorized content online, including illegal subscription services and open online live streaming powered by advertising revenue. These operators use sophisticated techniques to evade detection, often leveraging legitimate content distribution services. Even in the case of events broadcast on free-to-air channels, such as the Olympic Games or the final rounds of UEFA championships, online piracy continues.

Across the EU, countries and stakeholders are fighting the piracy of live events, based on regulations and technology to block illegal online services.

The European Commission has issued two recommendations:

– one on combating online piracy of sports and other live events, which created a network of specialized national administrative authorities and

– one on combating counterfeiting through enhanced enforcement and awareness-raising, to which EUIPO contributes through dissemination, implementation and monitoring efforts.

Additionally, efforts to combat piracy include raising awareness so consumers can find legitimate digital content.

EUIPO’s Agorateka is a tool that helps viewers identify legitimate offers for online content, including sporting events.

Operation “Fake Star”

Through Operation Fake Star, an initiative targeting counterfeit goods that infringe on well-known brands, police authorities across Europe have identified and seized 8 million counterfeit luxury and sports goods. That is, more than half of the 14 million counterfeit products seized, in total, in 2023.

Counterfeit sports goods included counterfeit clothing, footwear, labels, leather goods and accessories, including sports shoes and apparel, with an estimated retail value of €120 million. The operation led to the arrest of 264 people in connection with the counterfeit products.

During the operation, 552,611 types of footwear, 1,140,343 sportswear and 5,497,460 counterfeit labels with logos were detected. The seizures confirm that many of the finished counterfeit products are refined in Europe, where counterfeit logos are applied to unlabeled products. While uncovering counterfeiting rings, the operation also uncovered other serious crimes such as organized crime, migrant smuggling, fraud and money laundering.

It is recalled that the “Fake Star” operation is conducted under the leadership of Spain (Policía Nacional) and with the co-management of Greece (Hellenic Police), under the coordination of Europol, with the active participation of organizations and authorities from 18 countries.