On 16 March 2023, the final multiplier event of the European CounterRisk project organised by AIJU took place in Alicante.
The event was attended by more than 100 participants from companies in the children’s products sector, consumer authorities, consumer organisations and staff from local consumer offices.
The event involved speakers from the European CounterRisk consortium, led by AIJU, and from other institutions such as the European Commission’s Product Safety Unit, the Service of Inspection SOIVRE of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office.
The conference was structured around three key areas of knowledge for consumer products:
– Consumer protection
– Legal framework for product safety
– Intellectual property and application of new technologies for brand protection.
Within the consumer protection block, Sandra Nascimento from APSI (Portuguese Association for the Promotion of Child Safety) and Encarna Alemañ from AIJU highlighted the need to raise the awareness of consumers to identify counterfeit products and to be able to understand the risks that they entail. In addition, Jiri Stastny from SHH (Czech Toy and Play Association) addressed the impact of counterfeits on the industry; and the importance of communication from business to consumers, highlighting the benefits of choosing safe and authentic products.
In the second block, Myriam Denieul from the European Commission presented the new innovations of the general product safety regulation and its implications for the sector of children’s products not subject to harmonised legislation. On the other hand, Vicente Tasa, from the Service of Inspection SOIVRE, explained the market surveillance activities that they carry out in border control; and Luisa Marín from AIJU commented on the approach of the current revision of the Directive on toy safety.
In the final block of the event, on intellectual and industrial property and new technologies, Julie Dagher and Natasha Mangal from the University of Strasbourg, experts in these fields, indicated what can be protected in our products and how. Alexander Sánchez, from Lucentia Lab, spoke about the benefits and innovations of blockchain technology for the children’s products industry.
Finally, the event ended with the presentation of the CounterRisk training tools. These tools are free and open online nano-courses aimed at consumer organizations and companies in the children’s products sector, with mini training pills in the form of videos, infographics or texts with key content to address the dangers of counterfeit products from the perspective of child consumer.
We would like to thank the participants, speakers and organizers for their collaboration in the event. It was a unique opportunity to learn about CounterRisk training tools and the latest training content on product safety and intellectual property issues, essential for all those involved in the safety of children’s products: consumers, companies, regulators and market surveillance authorities. The materials of the conference will be available on the project website www.counterrisk.eu in a few days.
In conclusion, we can say that the event was a success in terms of organization, relevance of the contents for the professional development of the attendees and overall satisfaction. Proof of this is the echo of the national and regional media that covered the event, aware of the importance of the fight against counterfeiting by consumers, companies and authorities.
To learn more about CounterRisk training tools please contact proyectosseguridad@aiju.es.
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