A customer sends a photo of a product with your logo on it. The packaging is almost right. The price is half of yours. She wants to know why it stopped working after a week, and she is posting the story online. By the time you trace where she bought it, the listing is gone and three new ones have taken its place.
Counterfeiting is no longer a street-market problem. It runs through online marketplaces, social media shops, messaging groups and legitimate-looking distributors. Our brand protection services find infringements proactively, trace them back to their source and give your legal team the evidence to shut them down. As an international brand protection company headquartered in Dubai and backed by the 30+ years of GREVESGROUP®, we combine online brand protection with field investigators in more than 100 countries.
What Is Brand Protection?
Brand protection is the ongoing work of detecting and stopping the misuse of your brand, including counterfeit products, trademark infringement, grey market diversion, impersonation and online fraud. It covers three stages:
- DetectionFinding infringements online and in physical markets before they spread
- InvestigationIdentifying who is behind them and how the supply chain works
- EnforcementTaking action through takedowns, legal notices, raids, seizures and litigation
Many brand owners stop at detection and takedowns. That removes listings but leaves the counterfeiter in business. Real anti-counterfeiting results come from pushing the investigation back to the factory and the people funding it.
Why Counterfeiting Keeps Growing
Three changes have made counterfeiting easier and more profitable. First, e-commerce and social selling let anyone reach customers worldwide with a phone and a payment link. Second, small-parcel shipping means fakes travel in thousands of individual packages rather than a few large containers that customs can stop. Third, production quality has improved to the point where many buyers cannot tell the difference without a lab test.
The result is that counterfeiting now affects mid-sized brands and B2B products, not just luxury names. Industrial parts, lubricants, medical consumables and agricultural inputs are all targeted. If your product sells well and has margin, someone is likely copying it.
The Brand Abuse Problems We Tackle
- Counterfeit goods sold online, in retail outlets, wholesale markets and free zones
- Look-alike products and packaging that copy your trade dress
- Grey market and parallel imports that bypass your authorised distribution
- Distributor diversion, where authorised partners sell into restricted markets
- Brand impersonation through fake websites, social media accounts and job offers
- Domain squatting and typo domains used for phishing or selling fakes
- Unauthorised resellers damaging your pricing and customer experience
- Product tampering, relabelling and sale of expired stock
Our Brand Protection Services
Online Brand Protection and Marketplace Monitoring
Our team monitors marketplaces, e-commerce sites, social commerce and messaging channels for infringing listings. Marketplace monitoring focuses on the sellers that matter: high-volume, repeat and linked accounts that point to organised supply. We document evidence and support takedowns, but we also use online intelligence to identify the real operators.
Counterfeit Investigation
Our counterfeit investigations trace fake products from the point of sale through distributors, importers and warehouses to the manufacturer. We identify the individuals and companies involved, their locations and their assets.
Market Surveys and Test Purchases
Market surveys show where your products are being copied or diverted, at what price and in what volume. Test purchases secure physical evidence with documented chain of custody, suitable for legal and enforcement action.
Grey Market and Parallel Import Investigation
Grey market investigations trace genuine products sold outside authorised channels. Using batch codes, serial numbers and supply chain enquiries, we identify where diversion happens and which partner is responsible.
Brand Impersonation and Domain Investigations
We investigate fake websites, cloned social media accounts, fraudulent recruitment offers and phishing domains that use your name, identifying the people behind them and supporting removal and legal action.
Enforcement Support
When evidence is ready, we support raids and seizures with local authorities, customs actions, cease-and-desist campaigns and civil litigation, including pre-action verification and post-action follow-up.
Proactive, Not Reactive
Most brand owners learn about counterfeits from complaints. By then the fakes have been circulating for months. Our field investigators and online team look for infringements before customers find them, working from risk indicators such as new sellers, suspicious pricing, known counterfeit hubs and shipping routes.
This proactive approach lets you act while the counterfeiter is still small, before they build stock, distribution and customer reach.
Brand Protection Across Trade Hubs and Free Zones
Global trade hubs move enormous volumes of goods, and counterfeiters use the same routes as legitimate business. Transshipment through ports and free zones can disguise where goods were made and where they are going. Because we are headquartered in Dubai and investigate across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe, we understand how these routes work and where to look along them. That lets us follow counterfeit shipments across borders rather than losing the trail at the first port of call.
How We Build a Brand Protection Programme
Risk assessment
We review your products, markets, channels and past incidents to identify where you are most exposed.
Monitoring and detection
Online monitoring and field market surveys focused on high-risk products and regions.
Investigation
Priority targets are investigated to identify sources, networks and assets.
Enforcement
Evidence packs for your lawyers, and support for takedowns, raids, seizures and litigation.
Reporting and review
Regular reporting on findings, actions and results, so you can see what is working and adjust priorities.
Programmes can run on a single case basis or as an ongoing engagement, depending on the scale of the problem.
What You Receive
For each investigation, you receive a report with identified infringers, their locations and corporate details, evidence of infringement including photographs, screenshots, test purchase samples and receipts, and a recommended enforcement route. Ongoing programmes also include periodic dashboards showing detections, takedowns, actions and trends by market and channel.
Industries We Protect
Our brand protection work covers pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, cosmetics and personal care, FMCG, food and beverages, retail, fashion and luxury goods, electronics, technology and software, automotive parts, lubricants, agrochemicals, industrial products and manufacturing. In health and safety-critical sectors, fake products are a public safety risk as well as a commercial one, and we prioritise accordingly.
Why Choose Risk Investigators for Brand Protection
Online and on the ground
We connect digital evidence to physical supply chains, which is where enforcement succeeds.
Source-focused
We aim to stop the manufacturer and organiser, not just remove the latest listing.
Enforcement experience
GREVESGROUP® has supported raids, seizures and enforcement actions for well-known brands.
Global coverage
Counterfeit networks cross borders. Our investigators work in more than 100 countries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do brand protection services include?
Brand protection services include online and offline monitoring, counterfeit investigations, market surveys, test purchases, grey market investigations, impersonation and domain investigations, and support for takedowns, raids, seizures and litigation.
How do you find counterfeit products online?
We monitor marketplaces, social media, websites and messaging channels using search techniques, image matching and seller analysis, then investigate linked accounts, payment details and shipping patterns to identify the people behind them.
Is removing listings enough to stop counterfeiters?
Rarely. Takedowns are useful, but counterfeiters simply create new listings. Lasting results come from identifying the source and taking legal or enforcement action against the people and premises involved.
What is the difference between counterfeit and grey market goods?
Counterfeit goods are fakes that use your trademark without permission. Grey market goods are genuine products sold outside your authorised distribution channels or territories.
Can you help with raids and seizures?
Yes. We gather the evidence needed for enforcement and support raid and seizure actions with local authorities, subject to local law, including pre-raid verification and post-raid follow-up.
Do you offer ongoing brand monitoring?
Yes. We offer both one-off investigations and ongoing brand protection programmes that combine monitoring, investigation and enforcement support.