WHO WE ARE

The Together Against Counterfeiting (TAC) Alliance is a cross-sectoral industry alliance aiming to raise awareness about the impact of the worrying growth of counterfeiting on both European consumers and businesses, and to push for the adoption of immediate, horizontal and ambitious legislative solutions at European level.
We bring together almost 100 companies from all industrial sectors, with the support of over 20 trade associations and NGOs.

OUR MISSION

With a constant growth both in size and in scope in the recent years, counterfeiting has many negative consequences for the European economy, businesses and consumers. Making up for almost 7% of European imports by value (in 2016), the growth of almost 40% in three years is mostly due to online commerce. In view of the current debate at EU level on the need to update the rules governing online services, the Alliance aims to educate on the worrying growth of counterfeit goods’ online sales. We support legislative measures that rebalance responsibilities in the fight against counterfeiting by imposing binding obligations upon online intermediaries, to ensure they can never host counterfeiters’ illicit trade.

OUR PRIORITIES

We urge EU policy makers to consider introducing the following measures:
  • Ensuring that what is illegal offline is also illegal online.
  • Introducing a horizontal and binding obligation for intermediaries to deploy all technical measures at their disposal (through proactive and “staydown” measures) to prevent the sale of counterfeited goods on their platforms.
  • Ensuring the identifiability of online sellers to facilitate the dismantling of criminal networks, through an efficient “Know your Business Costumer” provision.
  • Strengthening platforms’ information obligations vis-à-vis the consumers, especially when they have been exposed to illegal content.
  • Setting up harmonised and workable notice and takedown procedures across the EU.
  • Supporting more information sharing between online intermediaries, right holders and law enforcement authorities.