Van Cleef & Arpels has become the latest luxury brand to get behind an anti-counterfeiting campaign in the EU, joining the likes of Cartier and Dior in promoting the initiative.
The campaign was created by a group of French company chairmen called the Comité Colbert.
The joining of Van Cleef coincides with the committee’s new anti-counterfeiting campaign that will be promoted at French customs to discourage consumers buying fake luxury goods in the country.
The committee has created seven new tag lines that use humour to get travellers’ attention which will be featured across more than 10,000 posters displayed in French airports.
The posters will include phrases such as “Buy fake Cartier, get a genuine criminal record”, and “Real ladies don’t like fake”.
Van Cleef & Arpels and Longchamp are the two newest brands to join ranks with Cartier, Chanel, Christian Dior, Lacoste and Louis Vuitton who have been involved with the initiative for several years.
Elisabeth Ponsolle des Portes, president and chief executive of the Comité Colbert said: "The protection of intellectual property rights makes it possible to grow competitive French businesses and safeguard French jobs.
“The combat of the Comité Colbert, which is of long date, illustrates the luxury sector’s commitment to the fight against counterfeiting to protect our know-how and creation.”
The drive is said to have already borne fruit, with the French national anti-counterfeiting committee (CNAC) offering that consumers in France are more aware than those in other EU countries that common European laws exist to protect intellectual property rights.
In France, the number of knock-offs seized by customs went from 200,000 in 1994 to 8.9 million in 2011.
It is estimated that counterfeiting costs the French economy between 30,000 and 40,000 jobs a year and €6 billion (£4.7bn) in losses.
The campaign has been taken up elsewhere in Europe with the customs administrations in six other EU countries have adopted it to raise awareness among their citizens. There are now local language versions in Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
