Technology, Without Enforcement, is Not Enough

Lately, we’ve been hearing of a growing number of companies that are offering, or expanding on their market surveillance and product intelligence services as a way of helping enforcement officials and brand owners to quickly identify illicit trade activity in particular markets, and to act upon these activities before it is too late.

Let’s look at three of these companies, some of which offer this service as an integrated part of an excise recovery or brand protection platform, thereby demonstrating that technology alone, without effective enforcement measures, is not enough to combat illicit trade and tax evasion.

ApiraSol: world’s largest network of detectives

The first company is ApiraSol GmbH, which was founded in Germany in 2010 with support from the German private sector.

The company describes itself as the ‘investigative approach to brand protection’, and the ‘missing link between online monitoring and physical investigations’. It also claims to have probably the world’s largest network of detectives, many of whom possess extensive anti-counterfeiting experience.