Your local market is at the heart of your community, providing great shopping choices and excellent bargains for its customers. Car boot fairs offer a great day out for the family, and perhaps even the chance to clear your attic! In both, genuine second-hand branded goods of all kinds are for sale, and this is perfectly legal.
But if a market or car boot fair suffers from rogue traders illegally selling fake versions of well-known genuine brands, this threatens consumer confidence and the profits of legitimate stallholders and retail outlets in the area. Ultimately the success of the whole market or car boot fair can be put at risk.
Our A-Z Market Product Guide (available to ACG Members and Enforcement Officers) provides practical advice on how to combat this problem and how to spot a fake, and if you find you have bought a counterfeit product, contact your local trading standards department.
A National Markets Group of rights holders in many industry sectors (including music and film), and law enforcement officers from around the country, work together to identify and take action against the worst venues, several of which have been closed down as a result.
This work is complemented by a campaign to sign markets and car boot fairs up to a voluntary charter, with local authorities and market owners, which will protect the consumers and legitimate traders in each locality. The Real Deal has now expanded into Northern Ireland and most recently into Scotland, with Glasgow City Council signing up their biggest car boot fair organiser.
Advice leaflet for Market Traders: ‘How to Stay IP Legal’ - contained in the leaflet are some very simple steps that will help you stay within the law.
For more information about car boot sales visit Car Boot Junction and Car Boot Sales
UK Markets directory here
The Real Deal Online programme has been developed by the National Markets Group for IP Protection (NMG) in conjunction with the National Trading Standards eCrime Team (NTSeCT) to create greater awareness amongst administrators of local social media groups of their legal responsibility to prevent the promotion and sale of counterfeit goods and other illicit products within their groups.
The programme, which will be rolled out at a local level by Trading Standards Services, establishes a process for trading standards officers to contact administrators of social media buy-and-sell groups and help them run a fake-free group. Administrators are invited to follow the Real Deal Online Code of Practice.
ACG represents more than 3,000 brands affected by this influx of fakes into the UK and delivers an international network of information, advice and contacts on all aspects of IP protection. Working with Government and law enforcement agencies since 1980, ACG is focused on providing an effective and sustained response to counterfeiting.
Membership with the ACG is the best way to work with government and enforcement bodies to protect your brand. Our Roadshows and training days help you reach out to police, trading standards and border force officers and tell them about your genuine products.