This is The Guardian.

by Alice Sheerwood.

I was standing in front of an imposing townhouse in a swish

sixteenth-erondissement of Paris.

Its classical lines, marble staircases and delicately wrought iron

balustrades blied the fierce sense of purpose inside.

The Musee de la Contrefaçon is an unusual kind of museum.

It specialises in counterfeits.

I hoped that my visit would help me understand a problem that luxury brands have

been battling for decades. That of mass market knockoffs and blatant

counterfeits. According to some estimates, the trade in

fake products is worth $600 billion per year.

As many as 10% of all branded goods sold may be counterfeit.

It is estimated that 80% of us have handled fake or falsified goods,

whether wittingly or not. Sales of luxury goods have sold in recent decades,

but fakes have grown even faster. One estimate suggests that

counterfeits have increased by 10,000% in two decades.

It's not just the overall figures that boggle the mind.

One French customs raid confiscated enough fake Louis Vuitton fabric

to cover 54 tennis courts. A swoop on a cellar on the online Chinese shopping

platform, Talbao, netted 18,500 counterfeit bags, aprons and footwear.

A bust in Madrid impounded 85,000 counterfeits ready for the Black Friday

...