Veritas expands its anti-counterfeit chip to jewelry, trophies, and fragrance bottles

Counterfeits of luxury goods are a major problem for fashion houses. Counterfeiters are getting better at replicating brands’ marks and passing off dupes, known as “ superfakes ,” as genuine items. A startup called Veritas wants to tackle the problem with its own chip that verifies goods.

Veritas was founded by Luci Holland, a former Tesla technical product manager who also has a background in design and art. Its chip is built to be easily inserted into products without damaging them. Brands can use it to verify whether a product is the real deal, and customers can show a certificate of ownership through the company’s app.

Holland said other approaches are easier to defeat, because a digital record can be reproduced through a copied QR code or static NFC link.