Harper's Bazaar, with Valerie Salembier, Senior Vice President of Hearst Publications and Publisher of Harper’s Bazaar, leading the charge, is making a bold effort to educate and involve their readership in the battle against counterfeit activity. The combined power of the printed word, a resourceful website and informative conferences involving leading anti-counterfeiting crusaders is moving rapidly towards fulfilling the  Harper's Bazaar's Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance mission of raising consumer awareness and exposing criminal activity related to the sale of counterfeit products. 

“I have no choice but to take a position on this. Because of the way counterfeit goods are made with child labor, counterfeiting is a crime against humanity." says Valerie Salembier. She is quite passionate that the fashion industry must take a stand on counterfeiting and she is putting Harper's Bazaar's influence behind her crusade. While at the helm of Harper’s Bazaar, Salembier has broken ground with the fashion magazine being the first to take a public stand against counterfeiting. 

Amidst  pictures of designer clothes, luxury goods and socialites, Harper’s Bazaar has published hard hitting stories exposing the relationship between the sale of fakes and a number of the morally reprehensible activities that this practice supports like child labor, terrorism, and drug trafficking. “We are educating the reader one person at a time. When a woman, especially, a mother hears that child labor is involved, they think twice about buying counterfeits. Each time we run a story, we are flooded with letters and emails from our viewers vowing never to buy counterfeit again,” says Salembier.

A recent Harper's Bazaar article focused on the link between counterfeiting and child labor. In the article Dana Thomas wrote, “Each year, hundreds of children have no choice but to sacrifice their lives to produce counterfeit goods.” The article, titled ‘The Fake Trade: Wanted for Stealing Childhoods’, was accompanied by a dramatic picture of rows of endless children asleep at their factory desks. Statistics highlighted in the story included how child labor experts estimate that more than 44 million Chinese children aged 10 to 14 are working to manufacture counterfeits. In another Harper’s Bazaar article, Nadine Rubin describes how these young children can start working as early as 7 in the morning and not stop until the next day. After working under terrible conditions 24 hours straight, these child workers do not go home to the comfort of their parents, but, instead return to unheated, squalid dormitories provided by factory owners. Tragically, the magazine reported that four young girls perished in a dormitory fire resulting from an accident involving a kerosene heater. It was further reported that it is near impossible to acquire accurate data on the number of children that may have senselessly died or been victim to workplace accidents as the Chinese Government is not forthcoming with such information.

“The only way to stop the sale of counterfeit luxury goods is to educate consumers about the human price of buying fakes,” argues Salembier. "The mission of the Harper’s Bazaar Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance is to raise consumer awareness through our initiatives and to expose the criminal activities directly tied to the sale of counterfeit products.” Each year, the magazine holds an annual Anti-Counterfeiting Summit in conjunction with the International Trademark Association (INTA) in both New York and London. In honor of the summit, Mayor Bloomberg proclaimed February Anti-Counterfeiting Month in New York City.

At the New York Summit, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly gave the opening address. Kelly is dedicated to fighting the counterfeit phenomenon and exposing the link between counterfeit and terrorist activity. Alan Drewes, executive director of the INTA, moderated a panel of experts.  The panel consisted of Sigal Mandelker, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice, Stephen Pinkos, Deputy under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Propery and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and Alain Coblence, lawyer for the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Dr. Mostert, past head of the INTA, spoke at the London Summit, “As consumers, we all need to start thinking about what are the cost of fakes: the use of child labor, the risk of physical harm to consumers, the links with organized crime. For too long, people have erroneously believed that counterfeit goods are sold by the guy with a stall in the street with no harm to anyone. This is not the case - complex and professional organizations are exploiting people all the way along the product line and we need to bring this to the attention of everyone.” Representatives from Walpole Intellectual Property and Branding Group, the Authentics Foundation, the British Brands Group, the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, and the Society Italiana Brevitti spoke at the London conference.

Salembier has been asked to speak at other events focusing on fighting counterfeit and similar illicit activity. King Juan Carlos of Spain has joined the fight, and he held an anti-counterfeiting conference in Madrid in May of this year at which Salembier was asked to speak. She noted that the king is very passionate about the issue of child labor and how important it is that world leaders take an active stance on the issue.

eBay consumer buying tips –    to prevent purchasing counterfeit goods online   Research the item you plan to buy. •     Read the seller’s item description carefully.  Look for clear product descriptions and photos so you know exactly what you are bidding on.   •     Learn more about the seller by checking out the seller's feedback.  Communicate with the seller. •     When in doubt, use the “Ask seller a question” link and email the seller any questions you have prior to bidding on the item.   Pay safely and ensure the item is covered by PayPal Protection. •     Check to see if the seller accepts PayPal and if the item qualifies for PayPal Buyer Protection. You have up to $1000 buyer protection, so if the item is not as advertised you go directly back to PayPal and they will deal with it for you. •     Avoid using instant cash transfer services through Western Union or MoneyGram to pay for your eBay item. These payment methods are unsafe when paying someone you do not know.

For Harper’s Bazaar, the summits are not enough and they have taken their fight against counterfeiting to cyberspace. They have launched a website, www.fakesareneverinfashion.com. The site features a recruitment campaign for Harper’s Bazaar’s Fashion Police. If you choose to enlist, you will be taught how to anonymously report a counterfeit sales operation and how to tell a genuine luxury product from a fake. The site allows you to file a report from the comfort and safety of your home. Fakesareneverinfashion.com also offers sound practical tips. “If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is" states Salembeir. "Items at flea markets, home parties, from street vendors or unauthorized websites are likely to be fakes.” The site hopes to expand into a library and resource relating to counterfeiting. It will soon give consumers the opportunity to buy real products directly from the site. Proceeds from the Fakesareneverinfashion.com t-shirt awareness campaign will go to charities like the Confucius Foundation, that aids children caught in the cycle of child labor. 

Salembier never misses an opportunity to educate about the pervasiveness of counterfeits in stores and on the net. “Www.portero.com is the only auction website that verifies its goods." She continues, "If you buy something from eBay and it turns out to be a fake, then you have no recourse. The seller will claim that that is what he was told.” Online auctions sites, with scores of anonymous sellers, have become an easy way for counterfeiters to unload their fake goods.

Nichola Sharpe from eBay responded to Salembier's statement. “Counterfeits are illegal and we do not tolerate them on the eBay  site. We work closely with law enforcement and over 18,000 copyright, trademark and intellectual property rights owners/ participants in our VeRo (Verified Rights Owner) Program. We recently took some bold steps and focused on items and categories most targeted by counterfeiters. We place restrictions on sellers wishing to sell those items, such as banning one and even three day sales, requiring PayPal verification, placing volume restrictions on the number of items they can sell and limits on cross border sales". She added, “We have seen some dramatic results so far- up to a 60% decrease in reports for some luxury goods. Legitimate sellers of these items have seen their average selling price increase”.

A common thread among Harper's Bazaar's and eBay's anti-counterfeit activities is education of the consumer. Harper's Bazaar is bringing the issue to the forefront in the pages of the magazine, promoting interactive outreach campaigns via the web and hosting educational summits serving to engage consumers and enabling them to make informed choices. In that same vein, eBay's VeRO program suggests greater interaction between buyer and seller promoting greater communication and the exchange of information thus breaking down the anonymous barriers by which counterfeiters can hide behind during Internet transactions. All of these efforts are leading to consumers learning that they have the power to affect the counterfeit trade and the criminal activity that supports it by making informed choices when purchasing goods.