The interactive marketing news site Clickz is reporting that counterfeiters are driving up online ad rates for five leading sports brands.


An analysis of 480,000 paid search ads for five major sporting goods brands found 25% promoted suspicious goods, according to a recent report at www.ClickZ.com.


ClickZ reported that the 120,000 suspect ads drove an estimated 11 million annual visits to more than 1,300 e-commerce websites selling questionable sports apparel. Those e-commerce sites attracted more than 56 million annual visits and sold 800,000 units of suspect sport apparel annually, ClickZ estimates.


“These suspected counterfeiters are competing with legitimate advertisers for advertising inventory, driving up prices and even outbidding authentic advertisers for premium placement for ads containing trademarked items,” ClickZ reported.