Counterfeiting: investigate, identify, prove

Written by Guillaume Pouillier, CNAPS-licensed private detective, licence no. AGD 095-2024-03-06-20190240581 · Last updated: July 14, 2026

An infringement action is worth what its factual file is worth. Who manufactures, who imports, who resells, where the stock sits: our investigation answers those questions through test purchases, findings and OSINT, turning a suffered loss into a winnable case.

Where does counterfeiting happen today?

Everywhere at once: shops and markets, but above all online marketplaces, social networks, messaging apps and pop-up sites that open and close within weeks. Tracing the chain behind the listing requires combining digital investigation (OSINT) and field work, either alone is no longer enough.

The visible seller is often just one link: behind them, an importer, a warehouse, sometimes a structured network restocking pop-up shops as fast as they are closed. Our job is to climb the chain: identifying seller accounts and their connections, documented test purchases, locating stocks and logistical choke points. That level of detail lets your counsel strike in the right place, once, instead of multiplying cosmetic proceedings.

How does an admissible test purchase work?

The investigator buys the disputed product like any customer, documents every step (listing, order, payment, delivery, packaging) and preserves the product as is for expert examination. Carried out fairly, without incitement to sell, the test purchase is a means of evidence accepted by French case law.

The line not to cross is entrapment: inciting someone to counterfeit or to sell what they were not already offering would weaken the entire file. Our protocols, order traceability, time-stamped photographs, chain of custody, are aligned with court requirements and with those of the article 145 pre-trial measure when the case calls for one. Every test purchase is delivered in a private-investigation report your lawyer can use directly.

What is the saisie-contrefaçon, and how do we prepare it?

It is the flagship procedure of French IP law (art. L716-7 of the IP Code for trademarks): on a court order, an enforcement officer seizes or describes the infringing goods at the infringer’s premises. Its success depends entirely on how precisely premises and goods are identified, which is exactly what our investigation supplies.

A vague application fails or gets retracted; a precise one, this warehouse, these products, these accounts, produces a shock effect the litigation benefits from all the way to settlement. We document the premises (access, hours, apparent volumes), the persistence of the activity and its scale, so your counsel can draft a substantiated application. The same work feeds customs alerts and platform take-down requests in parallel.

What do you get at the end of the investigation?

A file built for action: test-purchase reports with preserved products, identification of the operators and their structures, a map of the supply chain, elements of loss (volumes, prices, duration), and the location details needed for the seizure or interim proceedings.

Depending on your strategy, the file feeds the civil infringement action, a criminal complaint, customs procedures or negotiation, many cases settle once the chain is demonstrated. We stay available during the proceedings to refresh the findings: a sued infringer gladly moves stock, and a finding updated the day before the seizure makes the difference. See also our unfair competition and inventory shrinkage investigations, often related.

How much does it cost?

Our assignments start at €85/hour (excl. VAT) (full day €850, volume discounts). Every case gets a free written quote before any commitment, no hidden fees.

A typical file combines OSINT sessions, test purchases (product reimbursed at cost) and field findings. The quote is built by objectives, prove the sale, climb the chain, prepare the seizure, to match your counsel’s calendar.

See the full price list.

Frequently asked questions