Assistant Minister for Consumer Protection Vesna Novaković stated today that consumers must be informed about the damage that counterfeit products can cause. Counterfeit toys can endanger the lives of their children, while counterfeit automotive parts such as brakes can endanger their lives and the lives of other traffic participants.

During a presentation in the shopping mall “Delta City”, as part of the campaign “Fakes cost more. I buy real!” Vesna Novaković said that the right to protection from hazardous goods and services is one of the fundamental rights of consumers.

Novaković said that pirated software crash computers, the result being unsatisfied and unprotected consumers.

When we add the negative effects on the national economy to all of the above, it becomes clear that we must continually fight against these phenomena in order to create a favorable economic environment, concluded Novaković.

The market inspectors showed consumers the difference between counterfeit and original products and explained to them the dangers of using counterfeit goods to health and safety, and informed them about the connection between counterfeit goods and organized crime and about their negative impact on the national economy.

The campaign is part of the project “Implementation of Intellectual Property Rights” funded by the European Union, with 2.8 million euros from the pre-accession funds and implemented by the Department for Market Inspection of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Expertise France – a French international technical expert agency, and the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia.

In addition to market inspectors and other representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and telecommunications, the representatives of the Customs Administration were also present at the event.

Informational brochures were handed out to consumers, also they had the opportunity to complete an anonymous survey and thus express their views and opinions freely regarding this topic. The survey results will be published at the end of the campaign.

This event is just one in a series of activities that will be held in the framework of the campaign “Fakes cost more. I buy real!”. The goal of these activities is for representatives of Serbian state institutions to inform citizens about the benefits of protecting intellectual property rights and indicate the adverse effects caused by buying and using counterfeit products.

The next event will be organized on Thursday, April 9, at the “Mercator” shopping mall.