Counterfeit Cigarettes Market Value: $4 Billion
Counterfeit Cigarettes is the buying, selling and distributing of fake cigarettes that attempts to trade on legitimate brand names.
Fake cigarettes leads to losses of $4 billion for cigarette manufacturers.
Source: Angelica Medaglia, “Cigarettes Are Costly, but Often Less So in Chinatown,” New York Times, September 18, 2007.
Brazil loses $500 million in tax revenue to fake cigarettes
Source: Brazil-U.S. Business Council, “Counterfeiting and Piracy in Brazil: The Economic Impact,” 2004, (accessed: October 9. 2005).
China produces 190 billion counterfeit cigarettes each year
Source: Phillip Morris International, “Counterfeit cigarettes: The global problem and proposed solutions,” November 2003,(accessed:June 2, 2005).
9.07 billion fake cigarettes seized in China in 2006
Source: Xinhua, “China seizes nine billion counterfeit brand cigarettes in 2006,” People’s Daily Online, January 11, 2007,(accessed: January 13, 2007).
North Korea earns between $500 to $700 million a year from counterfeit cigarettes
Source: “Fake Cigarettes ‘N. Korea’s Biggest Money-Spinner’,” Chosum Ilbo, August 17, 2006, (accessed: August 18, 2006).
41 billion counterfeit cigarettes produced each year in North Korea
The counterfeit cigarettes are sold in China, Japan, and the United States.
Source: Richard Lloyd Parry, “An economy built on drug dealers, ivory poachers and counterfeiters”, The Times (United Kingdom), October 11,2006.
Pakistan loses $220 million in tax revenue
Pakistan loses $220 Million in tax revenue to counterfeit cigarettes.
Source: “Fake cigarettes incurring Rs.13.5 billion tax loss to govt annually,” PakTribune, December 9, 2006, (accessed: December 14, 2006).
European Union loses 600 million euros to counterfeit cigarettes
The European Union loses 600 million euros ($868 million) annually in tax revenue to counterfeit cigarettes.
Source: Jennifer M. Freedman, “Governments Trying to Battle Illegal Tobacco Trade,” Bloomberg News, February 11, 2008, (accessed: February 12, 2008).
1 billion GB Pounds in total market profit
Sellers gain a profit of 2 GB Pounds per pack, leading to a rough estimate of 1 Billion GB Pounds in total market profit.
Source: The Organised Crime Task Force, “Counterfeit Cigarettes 2004″ ,Confronting the Threat: Illicit Cigarettes, (accessed: October 18, 2005).
85 percent of cheap cigarettes sold in UK are counterfeit
Source: The Organised Crime Task Force, “Counterfeit Cigarettes 2004″ ,Confronting the Threat: Illicit Cigarettes, (accessed: October 18, 2005).
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