At the bazaars in Tunisia and Turkey, Poles see bags and glasses with false luxury signs, but the real problem is heavier: counterfeit medicines, certificates and car parts. The OECD and EUIPO study of 2025 estimates global counterfeit trade at $467 billion. Health, safety and fair marketplace are at stake.
It doesn't end at the market.
The vacation image is familiar: a stand, a curved tag, glasses with the logo of a well-known brand and a salesman convincing that it is an opportunity. The fact described akin experiences of Polish tourist from Jerba in Tunisia and a frequent view of counterfeits imported from Turkey. specified a acquisition is treated as an innocent souvenir. It's an illusion.
The problem begins erstwhile the same false logic goes beyond the purse or shirt. By OECD and EUIPO study 2025 The global counterfeit trade reached around $467 billion in 2021, and imports of counterfeit goods into the European Union were estimated at $117 billion. It's not a folklore market. It's an manufacture that preys on mediocre control, inexpensive transportation and naivety of a client.
Holiday destinations, including Tunisia, return during the period besides in the context of travel safety, as we have written on the occasion holiday plans of Poles. There is inactive a consumer dimension in this case. A Pole has the right to return from his vacation without knowing that he financed a network of counterfeits or brought a product that could origin problem at the border.
A fake drug is not a gadget.
The most dangerous are goods that cannot be assessed by the bare eye: medicines, supplements, car parts, certificates, electronics elements. This isn't about brand prestige. The question is whether the tablet has the right composition, whether the brake will withstand the load, or whether the paper allowing the component to be utilized is not a fiction.
Interpol stated that during Operation Pangea XVIII, conducted from 10 to 23 March 2026, 269 people were detained and 66 criminal groups related to the illicit trade in pharmaceuticals were broken up. Services conducted 392 investigations, performed 158 searches and discontinued operations of about 5700 pages, profiles, channels and bots utilized to sale specified products. It shows the scale of the problem. The first aid kit from the net can be the gateway to the criminal supply chain.
A year earlier, Interpol reported an even larger stock: 50.4 million doses of illegal pharmaceuticals worth $65 million. Among the products occupied were tranquilizers, painkillers, antibiotics, weight failure preparations and medicines utilized outside indications. A man buys a wellness promise, and he gets a risk. A country that does not defender specified a trade exposes a citizen to the mercy of an anonymous dealer on the network.
A fair marketplace needs boundaries
The European Commission and EUIPO stated that in 2024. Some 112 million counterfeit goods have been detained in the EU with an estimated value of EUR 3.8 billion. The Communication besides indicated that Poland was included in a group of 7 countries liable for a full of around 90% of the volume of detentions on the Union market. This is not a statistic from a distant world. This is besides our market, our stores, our courier packages and our wallets.
The same false mechanics we saw at counterfeits of Polish dairy in Ukraine: individual impersonates a brand, uses individual else’s trust, and earns money from individual else’s work. For the national economy, it's a double loss. He hits an honest entrepreneur, and the client teaches that only the lowest price matters.
The free marketplace is not that the State is looking away. economical freedom needs property rights, quality control and real protection from fraud. Without this, an honest maker loses to a pirate, and the citizen pays for apparent wellness savings, car failures or failure of money.
Lesson for the Polish consumer
The fakes are trendy due to the fact that they look like a shortcut to luxury. In practice, they are short for chaos. Especially erstwhile buying goes to the Internet, where a package from an uncertain origin can bypass the customer's natural care. The low price there is simply a veil for deficiency of certificate, deficiency of warranty and deficiency of responsibility.
Poland should look hard at this problem. Borders, customs, inspections and control of sales platforms are not bureaucratic fanatics. They are a defence of average order: household health, road safety and ownership of Polish companies. A fake from the bazaar might look funny. A fake in a medicine cabinet or in a car isn't funny.
Source: True, OECD/EUIPO, Interpol, European Commission.
