MarqVision Warns Brands of Rising ‘AI Tax’ as Counterfeit Losses Mount

New updates have been reported about MarqVision.

MarqVision has released its 2026 State of Brand Integrity Report, positioning the company at the center of how brands respond to AI-driven counterfeiting and impersonation risks that directly affect revenue. Based on a survey of 96 U.S.-based B2C companies with more than $10 million in annual revenue across fashion, electronics, health, beauty, and consumer goods, the company finds that counterfeiters are rapidly using AI to generate fake listings and fraudulent sites that siphon sales from legitimate products.

The report highlights that nearly nine in ten brands now face AI-accelerated threats, with 60% seeing AI-generated fake product listings and 48% encountering AI-generated fake websites, while 78% estimate losing at least 5% of annual revenue to counterfeits and impersonations, and almost half put losses at 10% or more. MarqVision notes that these attacks often follow viral marketing campaigns, with 57% of brands spotting fakes within a week of a viral moment and nearly a quarter within 24–48 hours, creating what the company calls an “AI tax” on marketing spend, growth, and customer trust.

Despite 85% of respondents agreeing that enforcement should explicitly protect revenue, MarqVision reports that only about half of brands have shifted from traditional takedown counts to revenue-focused protection metrics. CEO Mark Lee cautions that many teams remain in a purely reactive mode, focusing on volume of removals rather than measurable impact on sales, brand equity, and customer experience, even as AI-powered fraud scales faster than manual enforcement can keep up.

Strategically, MarqVision is framing brand protection as a competitive advantage and a core growth enabler, rather than a compliance function, arguing that companies that integrate real-time monitoring, proactive enforcement, and data-driven measurement can materially reduce exposure to AI-enabled threats. The company, which operates an AI-powered managed service for brand control across more than 1,500 platforms in over 118 countries and is backed by major global investors, is using these findings to reinforce demand for more sophisticated, ROI-driven brand integrity solutions that protect both revenue and long-term customer loyalty.