With less than two weeks until the World Cup kicks off, piracy has become an unbeatable rival for official brands. According to reports from El Financiero, the illegal trade in sports merchandise is causing losses of between 10 and 30 percent for companies like Nike, Adidas, Puma, and FIFA itself.
Santiago Nieto Castillo, head of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), warned that the economic impact is massive. "To give you an example, the 25 tons of goods seized in Tepito were worth about 15 million pesos. We are talking about potential losses of up to 150 million pesos in original merchandise that the public is not buying, which ultimately hurts legally established companies," the official noted.
The phenomenon goes beyond the finances of sponsoring brands. According to the report, the national textile industry has lost nearly 70,000 jobs due to unfair competition. On a macroeconomic level, it is estimated that piracy in Mexico accounts for as much as 8.8 percent of the country's GDP.
To protect the event, FIFA has registered more than 300 trademarks with the IMPI, including names like "FIFA World Cup 2026" and the images of the official mascots. The government agency has implemented "Clean Zone" operations at stadiums and Fan Fest venues to prevent the sale of unauthorized products and curb ambush marketing.
The Fight in the Digital Realm
The battle against piracy has also moved into the virtual space. Through collaboration agreements with platforms like Mercado Libre, the IMPI has successfully shut down 158 websites that were selling illicit products.
However, intellectual property specialists are skeptical of these institutional efforts. José Antonio Arochi, a lawyer at the firm Arochi & Lindner, described the problem as a "snowball" with deep cultural roots. "You have to understand that there is just too much product. You go into the warehouses and there are shirts upon shirts. A week after the raids, all the merchandise is back and they start selling it again," the expert explained.
Arochi pointed out that the end consumer keeps this distribution chain alive by choosing 400-peso replicas over original garments that cost upwards of 3,000 pesos. Furthermore, counterfeiters have begun integrating Artificial Intelligence tools to optimize their market research and supply chains, further complicating the work of Mexican authorities.
