Online shopping fuels piracy surge in Brazil

Browsing the website of Singaporean e-commerce giant Shopee, it doesn’t take long to find bargains on football shirts from Brazil and elsewhere. For example, the current jersey of Brazil’s most popular club, Corinthians, is advertised in one listing for BRL 30 (USD 5.95), while the same shirt in the official Corinthians store costs ten times as much.

A study conducted by pollster Ipec for Ápice, a sports industry association, found that 37 percent of football jerseys sold in Brazil are counterfeit. 

Of the 60 million shirts sold in the country in 2022, 22 million were fakes. The association estimates that losses from this form of piracy amount to BRL 9 billion (USD 1.78 billion), while revenues are almost as high at BRL 9.12 billion.

Renato Jardim, Ápice’s executive director, points out that the ubiquity of online commerce in Brazil — especially on platforms that sell imported products — has exacerbated the problem. A recent survey found that 62 percent of Brazilian consumers make between two and five online purchases per month, while 85 percent make at least one every month.

Mr. Jardim says the reach of counterfeit products, particularly football shirts, has also increased. Previously, fans had to look around stadiums on match days or visit street markets to find discounted and counterfeit football shirts. Now, access has become more convenient. “Consumers in medium-sized cities, small towns, or rural areas who didn’t even have access to these products now have access through e-commerce,” explains Mr. Jardim.

Ápice has identified 17,000 sellers of counterfeit sporting goods with over 100,000 active listings on Shopee. They generated BRL 64 million (USD 12.69 million) in sales with over 1.3 million items sold. Mr. Jardim claims that the association has been trying to...