Violação de Marca

Piracy and unauthorized use dominate young consumer behavior

branddi · Published on January 29, 2025 · Updated on April 10, 2026

Piracy is recognized as one of the biggest villains for brands. This is because it is capable of compromising credibility, revenue and even its relationship of trust with consumers and the market. In addition, of course, to undermining all the years invested in building your identity and reputation.

For this reason, it is common for companies to work actively to combat this problem, however, reality shows that piracy still dominates several sectors, generating a financial loss of more than R$450 billion nationally.

But what explains the continuity and growth of these brand violations, especially among young audiences? Come with Branddi and understand more about this new trend of piracy and how to protect your business from these counterfeits!

The growth of piracy among young people

According to a survey carried out by Circana, a company specializing in consumption, 68% of Brazilians consume unauthorized products and services inspired by some other brand.

Among younger people, aged 20 to 30, use is even more significant: 85% of them prefer to consume copies. But why does this happen?

Well, the truth is that there is not just one reason. This is because, according to the research, this predilection for fakes comes both from the choice for a more economically accessible product and from the popularity of the so-called dupe economy, a term that refers to the market for products that imitate items from famous brands, but without necessarily being direct counterfeits.

Proof of the consolidation of this trend is the growth of searches for “dupe” products on the networks, especially those most used by younger people: there are already 500 thousand videos and six billion views on the topic on Tik Tok alone.

How can the dupe economy impact your brand?

Although some sectors, such as beverages, fuel, clothing, perfumery, hygiene and cleaning, are the most affected by pirate market in Brazil, this does not mean that companies in other areas are immune to fake products.

After all, piracy quickly adapts to consumer trends and can impact any segment, and the opening to digital commerce also makes your business more visible not only to consumers, but also to brand violators, capable of causing several negative consequences to the original company, such as:

• Loss of revenue and profit;
• Damage to reputation and credibility;
• Market confusion and erosion of value;
• Legal and regulatory risk;
• Traffic diversion and theft of conversions;
• Expanding difficulty.

In other words, if you want to guarantee the sustainable development of your business, it is essential to ensure that there are no fake products appropriating your image and stealing your sales, your traffic and, most importantly, the trust of your audience.

And that's where Branddi Enter shield marketing to ensure that your brand is protected against brand violations and other types of digital threats. Keep following our blog to understand more about our work!

Back to blog