Technologies
One of the most valuable assets in the majority of companies is the brand. It is the link between supplier and customer, very costly to build up and extremely vulnerable to being compromised. Illicit activities in this area are growing exponentially in the form of counterfeiting and diversion (gray market activities with original products). Such product piracy result in financial losses, damage to the reputation and increased product liability lawsuits for the affected brand owners.
Suppressing counterfeiting, diversion, tampering and theft is also of public interest. The authorities of many states already do, or will enforce laws to combat these criminal activities. Some of these initiatives are listed below:
- US Food and Drug Administration: FDA 21 CFR part 211.132 mandating the protection of OTC products
- Under the EU regulation 178/2002, all food products must be traceable, starting January 2005
- Italian government bill Nr. 4957 of 2001, mandating that as of January 2004 all cigarette packages must bear an individual tracing code.
- The Turkish Government mandates mass serialization for human drug products starting January 1st 2010
One of the core problems while fighting against counterfeiting and contraband activities (diversion into illicit gray markets) is the fact that most brand owners do not precisely know what really happens to a product in the supply chain. This lack of information is one of the main deficiencies in their efforts to protect themselves against illicit activities. Product tracing is not only a powerful defense wall but provides also detailed and valuable data related to material flow through the various distribution channels.
