Hello and welcome everyone to this online conversation hosted by the European Centre for International Political Economy,

on the economic and broader societal value of intellectual property or IP for the EU and its member states.

My name is Jackie Davis, and today I'm very pleased to welcome Neil Narryman to this conversation.

Neil is President of Fezzi, the European Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry,

a sector which is a key target for the counterfeaters, not least because many of the European Sporting Goods Industry, a sector which is a key target for the

counterfeaters, not least because many of the best known brands in the world are sports

brands. The recent D-Type study on the benefits of intellectual property rights in EU free trade

agreements considers the role of strong IP provisions in tackling counterfeiting. So it is great to

have you with us today, Neil, to discuss this. Neil, let's just start by getting a sense of what we're

talking about here. I know that counterfeating is a significant problem in figures worldwide for

counterfeating. It costs the economy hundreds of billions of euros. It's believed

to represent something like 5 to 10% of global trade. But for you and for your sector, how

bigger problem is it?

First of all, thank you very much for the invitation and giving me the forum to speak about

this huge problem, not only for our sector, but for the

European industry as such. When it comes to the sporting goods industry, we are still facing

a huge problem when it comes to counterfeiting worldwide, not only in Europe, but it's a global problem, especially since a

couple of years, almost 10 years when it comes to online counterfeiting, which is much

harder to tackle than traditional way, if I may put it like this, of counterfeiting,

when goods were shipped in big containers from A to B,

and customs only had to stop these containers.

But it has become very, very difficult when it comes to the internet, to detect the goods,

...