Anti-Counterfeiting Research

Underwriters Laboratories advances the science of anti-counterfeiting.
Anti-Counterfeiting research

For more than 25 years, we have been dedicated to contributing safety science research to address some of the world’s most pressing safety threats. Counterfeiting is a crime that spans product categories, industries, supply chains, age, socioeconomic status and geographies. It poses a pervasive and constant threat to the health and safety of people, societies, economies and environments.

We are helping to lay the groundwork in the application of safety science research to the broad area of counterfeiting. Our research addresses the potential safety threats counterfeit products pose to the user. Through data-driven analysis and critical thinking we hope to encourage additional research and provide evidence that will inform safe employee and consumer behaviors, responsible supply-chain protocols, and support advocacy initiatives and sustainability protocols.

Fast Facts

  • UL tested 400 counterfeit iPhone adapters and the results were literally shocking. The overall failure rate exceeded 99 percent.

  • In a survey, 47% of Generation Z respondents said income justifies purchasing counterfeits; one said, "you should buy fake products when you are a student." Cheap prices are a dangerous trap, especially for young consumers.

  • Most online purchases of counterfeit goods are complicit and nearly half of such purchases involved social media communications.