February 12, 2025
Reading time • 5 min
Smuggling, counterfeiting and piracy will cost the Brazilian economy R$500 billion by 2024
In 2024, smuggling, counterfeiting and piracy cost the Brazilian economy half a trillion reais.
It is on the roads that almost all counterfeit or smuggled products are distributed throughout Brazil. In 2024, the most seized item was cigarettes. The Federal Highway Police alone collected 58 million packs and more than 600,000 electronic cigarettes – which are banned by Anvisa.
The hardest hit sector of the economy is clothing. The loss was R$87 billion. This was followed by the alcoholic drinks, fuel, sports equipment, perfumery and cosmetics, pesticides, gold and pay-TV sectors, for example. The audiovisual sector had a loss of R$4 billion. This is digital piracy of software, online courses, videos, music and films, sold without the owners’ authorization.
The National Forum Against Piracy estimates that the total damage to the Brazilian economy in 2024 was R$468 billion, between what factories and stores stopped selling and the taxes that weren’t collected – more than four times the figure for 2014, when the survey began.
According to the National Forum Against Piracy, this crime needs to be fought on two fronts: on demand, with campaigns to discourage people from buying these products, and on supply, with police intelligence to combat the gangs, which are becoming more sophisticated.
The president of the forum says that seizures of illegal products have grown despite difficulties – such as the size of the country’s borders – and that integration between police forces is therefore essential.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Security said it had stepped up efforts against illegal trade in partnership with inspection bodies, security forces and the production sector.
The Federal Revenue Service has stated that it has invested in control structures; that it seizes goods every day at land borders, ports and airports; and that, in 2024 alone, it collected more than R$3.7 billion in illegal products.
