Abstract
Counterfeit alcohol belongs to the category of unrecorded alcohol not reflected in official statistics. The internet trade of alcoholic beverages has been prohibited by the Russian Federation since 2007, but various sellers still offer counterfeit spirits (i.e., forged brand spirits) over the internet to Russian consumers, mostly in a non-deceptive fashion at prices up to 15 times lower than in regular sale. The public health issues arising from this unregulated trade include potential harm to underage drinkers, hazards due to toxic ingredients such as methanol, but most importantly alcohol harms due to potentially increased drinking volumes due to low prices and high availability on the internet. The internet sale also undermines existing alcohol policies such as restrictions of sale locations, sale times and minimum pricing. The need to enforce measures against counterfeiting of spirits, but specifically their internet trade should be implemented as key elements of alcohol policies to reduce unrecorded alcohol consumption, which is currently about 33 % of total consumption in Russia.
Highlights
Counterfeit alcohol belongs to the category of unrecorded alcohol not reflected in official statistics
Previous studies in Russia have focused on the consumption of alcohol surrogates[5,6,7,8,9] or homemade alcohol[6,10,11], but comparatively little research has been done on other forms of unrecorded products, such as counterfeit alcohol[12,13]
Processing payments for the delivery of alcohol is legal according to Russian law and seems to be an important loophole in the existing legislation frequently used by various online sellers, regardless of whether their products are counterfeits or not[17]
Summary
Processing payments for the delivery of alcohol is legal according to Russian law and seems to be an important loophole in the existing legislation frequently used by various online sellers, regardless of whether their products are counterfeits or not[17]. For example methanol poisonings with counterfeit branded spirits have occurred regularly in Russia over the last two years, resulting in several deaths[14,20] These cases corroborate the observed lack of enforcement of food safety standards in internet trade[21]. The illegal internet sale of counterfeit alcohol does evade tax payments and undermines youth protection policies, it undermines various other alcohol policy measures introduced in Russia over the last years to reduce the harmful use of alcohol[25], such as restrictions of sale locations and sale times and the fixed minimum price on alcoholic beverages[25,26]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
