The fight against counterfeiting broadens its boundaries and with the Guardia di Finanza it targets one of the latest successful discoveries in Made in Italy fraud: the fake pellet. The small cylinders made with wood waste and used for ecological and high-efficiency heating also in terms of energy saving, are in recent months at the center of an increasingly impressive turnover of fake.
The operational results of the Fiamme Gialle confirm this. In the period 2020 – August 2021, the GDF seized over 3,000 tons of pellets in 76 targeted interventions, intercepting counterfeit products being sold in commercial establishments (28%) or deposited in warehouses and warehouses (25%). In 17% of cases, however, the counterfeit material was intercepted upon its entry into Italy. The seizures carried out during transport along the road and motorway network, on the other hand, account for about 10% of the law enforcement activity.
The photograph taken by the Guardia di Finanza comes precisely with the start of the sixth edition of the Anti-Counterfeiting Week, organized annually by the Ministry of Economic Development to raise public awareness on counterfeiting and its impacts in terms of consumer health and safety, unfair competition for businesses, lack of employment and tax losses.
From the General Command of the Guardia di Finanza, which with its departments represents the operational arm of the Mise for the fight against forgery and the protection of Made in Italy, they explain that the counterfeiting of pellets mainly affects the product quality certification marks. And this to the detriment of both the interests of certified companies that produce or market quality pellets, and of consumers who place their trust in purchasing a product with certain characteristics also in terms of energy efficiency.
“As in other sectors – explain the men led by the commander general Giuseppe Zafarana – given that the origin and provenance of the product is also associated with its quality, counterfeiters take advantage of masking a commercially unappealing provenance with false information on the goods” .