Counterfeiting Goods and Digital Piracy as a Threat to Internal Security

Abstract

Aim: The aim is to demonstrate the impact of intellectual property (IP) crimes on the security of the European Union (EU). The relevance of the topic is ensured by the European Commission’s recent initiative, ‘ProtectEU’, introduced in April 2025, which focuses on strengthening the EU’s internal security. This strategy relies heavily on the EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (EU-SOCTA), which mentions the phenomenon but does not rank it among the most significant threats.

Methodology: This research systematically collects, analyses and evaluates reports and studies from the relevant international literature, including comprehensive statistics and reports published by the EU or international organisations. The study applies the Copenhagen School’s sectoral security theory to demonstrate the danger posed by counterfeit goods and digital piracy to the EU’s internal security. Through a review of the military, political, economic, societal, environmental, and information technology sectors, the research highlights the importance of addressing this phenomenon, using available literature, reports and comprehensive studies.

Conclusions: The EU authorities are continuously working to combat counterfeit goods and digital piracy, and their results demonstrate the effectiveness of their joint efforts. For example, in 2024, the authorities seized or detained 112 million counterfeit products, with an estimated value of over €3.8 billion. These seizures, along with those from previous years, provide a valuable opportunity to demonstrate and prove the threat that counterfeiting poses to various security sectors, and to highlight the crucial role that EU authorities play in combating this phenomenon.

Notably, as a result of the policymakers’ decision, IP crime as a sub-priority will be part of the next European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) political cycle from 2026 to 2029, which is a crucial step in the fight against counterfeit goods and digital piracy. The goal of the IP enforcement community should be to guarantee that measures to combat IP crime are also included in the EU’s internal security strategy, ensuring that the fight against this phenomenon receives the highest priority at the highest EU level.