20% of small businesses losing up to £17k due to one common experience

20% of small businesses losing up to £17k due to one common experienceA fifth of small businesses in the UK have reported experiencing one frustrating thing. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Add us as preferred source Comments By Grace Piercy, News Reporter 12:13, Fri, May 29, 2026 Updated: 12:13, Fri, May 29, 2026 Small businesses report frequently experiencing design theft (Image: Getty) This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more A fifth of small businesses are losing thousands of pounds due to one common experience - design theft. New research from Not On The High Street, in partnership with the British Library Business & IP Centre network, has revealed the scale of the problem. window.scriptsToLoad.push({url:'https://live.primis.tech/live/liveView.php?s=118222&vp_content=plembed3a6btjknzwqh&cbuster=%%CACHEBUSTER%%&playerApiId=v118222',triggeredBy:'tcfLoaded',delay:1500,containerId:'ovp-primis',title:"Primis player",beforeLoad:()=>{window.top.addEventListener('primisPlayerInit',e=>{try{if(e.detail&&e.detail.playerApiId==="v118222"){if(window.document.getElementsByClassName('jwplayer')[0]){e.detail.float('disable')}}}catch(e){}})},}) Over half of businesses in the survey sell their own original designs, products or creative work. Among them, nearly four in 10 say their designs have been stolen by other companies. This equates to 20% of all small independent businesses in the UK and rises to 87% among small creative independent brands. Social media accounts - often anonymous and untraceable - regularly pop up selling designs blatantly and cheaply copied from small businesses. Meanwhile, large marketplaces such as Shein and Temu were widely cited as the culprits for listing stolen designs. While large companies such as these have departments responsible for handling issues relating to design theft - and will often be able...