The first months in Spain of the French designer Gael L. with his new clothing brand were going from strength to strength. The Pirate Gang Paris brand, with its characteristic designs with streetwear aesthetics based on rhinestones and shiny finishes, began to be common among famous rappers, reggaeton artists and various television stars.
His company, based in Valencia, began to expand rapidly, opening up to six stores in shopping centers, launching new collections and eventually having 15 employees on staff. But as the business grew and succeeded, Gael began to increasingly detect fakes of his designs on the street.
Two years later, he feels frustrated by police inaction and his company is drowning in debt while counterfeits originating in Cobo Calleja multiply. This industrial estate located south of the city of Madrid houses one of the main wholesale distribution centers linked to Chinese trade in Spain, which has been the scene of several police operations against the marketing of counterfeit products. Fakes of his t-shirts can even be easily obtained through the famous TikTok Shop platform given the impotence of the French designer.
"The first six months I told myself: 'Now, nothing is happening, the Police here do not have many troops. Nothing is happening, each country has its problems a little bit.' But when I have seen that two years go by and that the Police do not act, I feel enormous frustration," declares the designer, who has shared his story with 20minutos through our community, Ciudadano20. "I go to Madrid or I go to the hospital in Valencia, I go anywhere, and I promise you that when I go out with my wife on the street, I tell her 'look, my love, another copy of my shirt'."
Investigations that span years
The impact of counterfeits in the textile sector is no longer limited to flea markets or physical sales. The Internet and social networks allow counterfeit products to quickly reach consumers at the click of a button. According to a joint study by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the OECD, online sales accounted for 60% of global seizures of counterfeit products.
Another study, prepared by the Swiss company SICPA, estimates direct sales losses due to counterfeiting of 5.7 billion euros per year in Spain and 44,700 lost jobs. In the clothing sector, around 1,000 million euros - 3.7% of sales - and 11,208 jobs are lost each year for this reason.
"It is important to understand that counterfeits do not only affect large brands, but also affect emerging brands. These emerging firms that have very limited capital have as their main asset their designs, their creativity or their ability to impact people through marketing campaigns or social networks," declares Gerard Guiu, general director of the Association for the Defense of Brands (Andema). "The problem for these emerging firms is that in many cases they do not have the economic resources or legal knowledge necessary to defend and protect their industrial property rights and thus fight against counterfeiting."
In July 2024, the Tax Agency and the Civil Guard announced the intervention of more than six million counterfeit products in an operation related to five Cobo Calleja logistics operators, including numerous textile products. The investigation began with a complaint from one of the affected brands. Investigations, however, can last for years and for many small brands there may be deadlines that make their survival over time unfeasible.
Regarding the difficulties involved in pursuing sellers who operate from commercial estates such as Cobo Calleja and who, in addition, sell their products through TikTok, lawyer Octavio Gil, manager of Digital Law and Civil Law at RSM, "the main problems lie in a correct and sufficient identification of the offenders both in the sales profiles on the platforms and in the real ownership of the counterfeits or the establishments where they are located, as well as in the accreditation of the link between the advertiser on a platform and the ownership of counterfeits. Added to this are the difficulties derived from rotation or plurality of ships or profiles on platforms and even the proliferation of new offenders after the blocking of the initial ones.
"I'm lost"
Faced with police inaction and seeing helplessly how counterfeits of his brand continued to proliferate, Gael began to investigate on his own. He went so far as to buy counterfeit brand clothing to obtain the account number where he had to make the transfer, based in Belgium, he located the company from which they started in Cobo Calleja, and certified that the sales on TikTok were counterfeits of his brand that the sellers made consciously. He filed videos and photos and even hired a private detective, but all that investigation has still not yielded any fruit, waiting for a police report that never arrives.
Meanwhile, counterfeits continue to wreak havoc on their finances and the viability of their company. He cannot launch new collections, has lost professional clients and is facing significant debt. The impact is both professional and personal, affecting your quality of life and creating a feeling of shame and despair.
"Since the Chinese copy me, we try to lower the price, but when you lower the price, you don't make any money either. This year I won't release the winter collection. First because I have debt. Second because every time I release a design, I put a protection in Europe, and then the Chinese counterfeit me. I'm not going to do more collections, I'm lost," laments the French designer. "I am autistic grade 1, with an IQ of 136. Everything that affects me, affects me more and, psychologically, I can't take it anymore. Before I had a pace of life that is not the same as now. Now I feel ashamed when I go to talk to the bosses of the factory, because I am the one who has the debt, debt, debt...".
