The counterfeit luxury market has ballooned to nearly half a trillion dollars worldwide. But AI-driven authentication and expert verification are redefining trust in resale.
Once the domain of discreet boutiques and auction houses, buying secondhand designer pieces has become mainstream. But amid this explosion of access, the question of authenticity looms larger than ever.
The trade in fake luxury goods is staggering. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office, global trade in counterfeit goods reached $467 billion in 2021, representing nearly 2.5 percent of global trade. A Corsearch forecast projects that the counterfeit market could swell to $1.79 trillion by 2030, roughly five percent of total global trade. In the United States alone, law enforcement agencies report seizures of counterfeit luxury items worth hundreds of millions annually.
A recent Fashion Dive report cited data from authentication platform Entrupy showing that 8.4 percent of luxury goods scanned by its technology were either counterfeit or inconclusive —across a sample representing nearly $2 billion in resale value. For context, that’s tens of thousands of handbags, watches, and sneakers circulating in a market that thrives on the illusion of authenticity.
“This is a serious problem that shows no signs of stopping and needs a more scaled approach if we have any hope of stopping the bleed between the counterfeit market and the legitimate one,” Entrupy CEO Vidyuth Srinivasan said in the report.
“What stood out most is how rapidly the scale and sophistication of counterfeits are evolving,” Srinivasan said. “We’re seeing a troubling uptick not just in volume but in the quality of fakes. Some fakes are so convincing that even seasoned professionals can’t tell them apart. The data shows that no category is immune, and that brands can’t rely solely on traditional methods of enforcement or deterrence anymore.”
Experts warn that the problem extends far beyond lost sales. Counterfeit production is tied to organized crime networks, exploitative labor, and environmental violations. “Counterfeit products not only attack the name and value of a known business, but, in many cases, can cause harmful, and sometimes fatal, consequences for the unsuspecting buyer,” Mark Zito, Deputy Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations, Los Angeles, said in a statement.
Steve Francis, Assistant Director for HSI’s Global Trade Investigations Division and Director of the IPR Center adds that at best, these products will not perform as well as authentic products. “At worst, they can fail catastrophically.”
The business of trust
Authentication has evolved from an in-house service into a standalone industry. “Fakes have unfortunately gotten a lot better,” luxury authenticator Sabina Jacobs told Italist. “The struggle becomes finding an authenticator who is skilled enough to be able to tell.” Her process is meticulous: fonts, materials, and craftsmanship are examined in sequence. She says the most important things in authenticating would be the fonts. The second would be materials. The third would be stitching and craftsmanship.
The newest players combine human discernment with machine learning. Platforms like LegitGrails — a Hermès’ legit check — which offers Independent Authentication, claim accuracy rates of over 99.3 percent. Others, such as Real Authentication, specialize in rapid digital verification for a range of luxury brands, offering expert human review for about $30 per item — a small price that can prevent costly mistakes.
Meanwhile, fashion-tech firms like Entrupy use AI-driven microscopic imaging to identify texture and pattern inconsistencies, authenticating more than 20 top luxury brands. “It really is of primary importance to protect brand integrity,” luxury resale platform Fashionphile’s founder and president, Sarah Davis, told Vogue Business. “It’s really the primary reason [people] come to us. They trust us to be able to buy these very expensive things and they trust that they’re going to be authentic.”
The consumer’s dilemma
For consumers, authentication standards differ sharply by platform. Luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective built its first authentication hub in 2017 and now employs dedicated experts to review every luxury listing. But even trusted platforms face human limitations. Elin Switz, founder of luxury sourcing service and consultancy Maastic, told Vogue Business that “junior or entry-level authenticators are being given critical luxury brands too early,” warning that volume-driven quotas can lead to oversight.
This inconsistency has pushed many buyers toward independent verification, often before or immediately after purchase. Hybrid services now provide digital certificates of authenticity, combining manual inspection with AI analysis that can flag microscopic deviations most often invisible to the human eye. Others operate as consulting firms, issuing detailed reports used in disputes or insurance claims. The result is a cottage industry built on restoring the trust that large marketplaces have diluted.
The stakes are high. According to a 2024 InsightAce Analytic report, the global luxury authentication service sector is projected to grow by about ten percent annually through 2031, with North America holding a dominant market share. That demand mirrors the broader trajectory of secondhand fashion, which analysts at Bain & Company and Vestiaire Collective expect to outpace new luxury growth in the coming decade.
Yet even as resale promises sustainability and accessibility, the dark side of counterfeiting undermines its potential. Counterfeits erode brand equity, defraud consumers, and perpetuate exploitative manufacturing. As Jacobs explained, “Often I can look at something and know in the first ten seconds if it is authentic or not.”
Stylist Cynthia Kennedy shared practical tips for spotting counterfeit items with Newsweek. She says the first place to start is the material. “Fabric doesn’t lie. Designer clothes are made with high-quality fabrics. If it is coarse, rigid or overly synthetic, it is not real.” Likewise, craftsmanship in luxury goods will be meticulous. “Pay attention to stitching and seams,” she says. Luxury brands do not cut corners in construction. Red flags are uneven seams, sloppy stitching, or patterns that don’t line up.”
She also recommends inspecting the label. “The tag should be neatly sewn, flat, and designed in the right font for the brand. If the tag is misspelled or crooked, that’s a dead giveaway.”
But the biggest clue that an item is fake is usually obvious: the price, Kennedy says. “If it seems way too cheap for what it is, there’s a reason.”
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