Can hologram labels be copied?

Can hologram labels be copied?

The sale of counterfeit goods is on the rise. Research by Incorpo found that over 69% of UK consumers have purchased counterfeit goods online thinking that they were genuine. According to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED), in 2016, the global value of fake goods was $590 billion.

The rise in the sale of fake goods comes down to fraudsters finding increasingly clever techniques to make fake goods look genuine. However, it is possible to fight back against these fraudsters by incorporating as many security features as possible into your products, particularly hologram labels.

Is counterfeiting a victimless crime?

Many criminals view selling counterfeit products as a victimless crime when in fact, there are several victims, including the person who may have unknowingly bought the product thinking it was genuine and the company whose product was copied.

Fake products generally tend to be low quality and haven’t had to go through the rigorous health and safety checks that real products have to before they can be sold. Depending on the types of products copied, counterfeit goods can pose a serious health and safety risk if something were to go wrong with them.

How to protect your products with hologram labels

Protecting products with hologram labels is an established way to fight back against counterfeiting, and this is because holograms are incredibly difficult to copy.

The process used to create a hologram is called holography and this is defined as ‘a photographic technique that records the light scattered from an object, and then presents it in a way so that it’s 3 dimensional.’

The steps involved in making a hologram are very complex. It involves reflecting a laser beam off an object. The laser beam is split into two halves using a mirror, one half of the laser beam bounces off a mirror, hits the object and reflects onto a photographic plate. The other beam bounces off another mirror onto the same plate, creating the hologram.

The process of creating holograms is technically challenging and it requires skill and expensive and specialist equipment. New techniques and materials are constantly being introduced in the production of holograms making it increasingly difficult for holograms to be copied.

What can hologram labels be used on?

Holograms are incredibly versatile and can be used across numerous industries including:

We’ve been helping businesses from all industries fight back against counterfeiters with custom holograms for over 30 years. Get in touch using our online enquiry form to find out how creating holograms can help protect your products from fraudsters.