Every fake sold is a customer lost.
Ask for our advice on counterfeiting, parallel-market monitoring, due diligence and unfair competition, including on digital channels.
Where are you starting from?
How it begins
Three steps, before any analysis
- 01
Confidential meeting
You walk us through the case: trademark, products, channels, objective.
- 02
A quote for the case
Levels of analysis, timing and costs, in writing, before any work begins.
- 03
Engagement and dossier
Test purchases, analysis and a technical dossier signed by the court-registered expert.
The problem
3bn €
in sales lost on average each year by the cosmetics sector across the EU (2018–2021)
260m €
in sales lost on average each year in Italy, 3.1% of the sector's sales (2018–2021)
Source for both figures EUIPO, ‘Economic impact of counterfeiting in the clothing, cosmetics, and toy sectors in the EU’, January 2024, table 1, p. 8 (opens in a new tab)
Brand consultancy
The facts, documented like an exhibit
For maisons and distributors, we follow the product outside the official distribution network: the parallel market, marketplaces and social platforms, suppliers and stock, testers and ‘inspired by’ perfumes (dupes), each of which may or may not be lawful; the assessment rests with legal counsel and, in court, with the judge. Every test purchase follows the chain of custody and goes into a technical dossier for legal counsel.
- Reference
- Sample under examination
Demonstration profile · simulated dataRT (retention time): the minute at which each substance leaves the column. Different peaks, different composition.
- RT
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- Reference
- ·
- Sample under examination
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- Compound
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What you receive
- Parallel-market mapping, product by product
- Test purchases, logged as exhibits
- Dossier for law firms
For shopsTrusted Seller pilot
Do you sell fragrance? Apply to the Legality programme pilot.
Apply on the site, anonymous purchase within 60 days and laboratory analysis. No seals or attestations are issued until the programme is complete.
Expert reports
Three levels of analysis, each with a signed result
Work starts with the photos and moves up a level only if the case calls for it: the photo check gives a preliminary result; the laboratory check and the chemical analysis give a report signed by the court-registered expert and prepared for use in legal proceedings.
Note · stated limits
The laboratory check takes place in the expert's own laboratory, which is not ISO/IEC 17025 accredited (a declared objective); the chemical analysis is carried out, under the expert's direction, by a third-party laboratory named in the report along with its qualifications.
At a glance
- Photo checkWritten preliminary result, signed by the expert: not an expert report 24/48 hours
- Laboratory checkReport setting the measurements beside those of the genuine product 3/5 days
- Chemical analysisReport comparing the chemical profiles 7/10 days
Indicative timings, from receipt of the material or sample; for the chemical analysis they also depend on the third-party laboratory.
For brand counsel
Reports an in-house legal team or a law firm can file and compare
The technical dossier gathers the technical findings for the brand's counsel, in-house or external, to assess: possible infringements of trademark rights (Italian Industrial Property Code, d.lgs. 30/2005), acts of unfair competition (art. 2598 c.c., Italian Civil Code) or misleading advertising or unlawful comparative advertising (d.lgs. 145/2007, Italian Legislative Decree). Every report follows a public schema and describes the method applied: counsel files it in their own systems and can ask for the text of the protocols, which are still drafts.
Training for retail
A fake is caught first on the shop floor
Modules of 4, 8 or 16 hours for sales staff and buyers, on real samples, genuine and counterfeit, shown in the classroom within authorised limits: never products that have been the subject of an expert report, and kept in the laboratory's custody so that they do not return to the market.
What you receive
- Modules of 4, 8 or 16 hours
- Genuine and counterfeit samples shown in the classroom, never the subject of an expert report and kept in the laboratory's custody
- Quick-reference field cards
Economic damage
The estimate of economic damage is prepared with law firms and forensic economists named in the document, on the basis of verifiable data and declared assumptions.
Code of ethics
We do not accept engagements that would place us, on the same product or the same matter, at the service of opposing parties, unless all parties give informed written consent. Information acquired in appointments by the authorities is not used for brand consultancy.
Further details
Economic damage
The estimate of economic damage is prepared with law firms and forensic economists named in the document, on the basis of verifiable data and declared assumptions.
Code of ethics
We do not accept engagements that would place us, on the same product or the same matter, at the service of opposing parties, unless all parties give informed written consent. Information acquired in appointments by the authorities is not used for brand consultancy.
Tell us about the case: levels, timing and costs in writing, before any analysis.
Other areas
Not your area?
Current page · 02 Businesses
- 01ConsumersBuyers, Expert report. Send the bottle, receive a signed report. Coming soon: Verify™ on your photos
- 02Current pageBusinessesBrands and shops, Law firmsTest purchases, analysis and a technical dossier for legal action
- 03InstitutionsLaw enforcement, Customs, Judicial police. From seizure to technical report, when formally appointed