Products such as alcohol and tobacco are subject to excise duty. Tax stamps on excise goods help to drive government revenue via tax, drive down counterfeit products and play an integral part in the track and trace of these products. However, in the EU alone, counterfeit wine and spirits cost the drinks industry €2.7bn in direct sales (EUIPO), proving that tax stamps can still lead to illicit goods entering the market. Meanwhile, at an investigation into beer duty fraud, the then deputy director of alcohol, tobacco and gambling taxes for HMRC stated that it is possible to counterfeit duty stamps.
This poses problems across all industries, but pharmaceuticals, alcohol and tobacco products are perhaps the most vulnerable. While the threat of counterfeit products damages brand and product reputations, counterfeit tax stamps also hamper government revenue as they are unable to tax elicit goods.
It’s never been more important for governments to take action to secure supply chains. This is where our anti-counterfeiting for tax stamps comes in.
While anti-counterfeiting technologies within tax stamps have advanced, vulnerabilities still exist; it is these vulnerabilities which have resulted in a significant rise in the counterfeiting of tax stamps and fake excise goods entering the market.
Q-IDs®, due to their flexibility of design and sizing, are helping to redefine security and product identity on a global scale. Our solution is paramount to directly combat the rise of counterfeit stamps.
Using the inherent randomness of quantum materials, we are able to imprint invisible tag markers on an atomic scale – we called this a ‘quantum signature’. Our quantum signatures are unique amongst counterfeit protection solutions, as they cannot be copied, cloned or faked. These tags can be applied to products, packaging, or individual components, allowing for a wide variety of applications, including tax stamps.
These tags can be integrated into the existing tax stamp manufacturing process, and can be scanned using a standard smartphone camera, meaning that producers, suppliers, and customers can verify their purchases instantly with readily-available technology. With this real-time authentication, we are redefining product security and revenue protection on a global scale, as well as streamlining supply chains.
The rise in global connectivity has created a lucrative environment for the forging of elicit goods and the loss of government revenue. Our anti-counterfeiting solution for tax stamps can help to stop this market, and halt the sale of illegal goods internationally.
With our Q-ID® technology, manufacturers can:
Simple to make and yet impossible to copy, Q-ID®s from Quantum Base provide the ultimate in tax stamp authentication. Contact us today to find out more, and help us create a future without fakes.