EUIPO has recently published a report focusing on the scale and nature of online advertising on websites and apps that infringe intellectual property rights (IPR) in the EU.
The report examines, among other topics, how IPR-infringing websites and apps generate revenue through online advertising. Many of these services display ads from entirely legitimate brands, which can mislead users into believing that the content is legal.
The study covers 7,250 websites and 398 apps across 18 EU countries, as well as the UK and the US, and is based on monitoring conducted in 2024. Of these, 44% of the websites and 60% of the apps were classified as illegal, while the rest were identified as being high-risk.
The report also shows that since 2021, there has been a significant increase in advertising from both well-known and lesser-known brands on IPR-infringing websites, alongside a sharp rise in ads for scams and malware. According to the report, national Infringing Watch Lists (IWLs) have generally become less effective, partly due to a decline in coordinated industry efforts.
Specifically for Denmark, the report highlights that the share of scam and malware ads is higher on Danish IWL websites (23.3%) compared to the average of all monitored websites across other EU countries (16.9%)
The full report can be found on the EUIPO website.