Fighting fake alcohol with a single Tap

The Indian alcohol beverage industry is plagued with cases of counterfeiting which is damaging not only in terms of revenue and reputation of brands but also the consumers’ health. Plugging the cap and safeguarding the interest of both the producers and the consumers is a new technology in the form of smart labels embedded with encrypted NFC chips that makes counterfeiting almost impossible. At the forefront is ForgeStop Technology Corporation, whose scalable platform is already delivering measurable results for leading distilleries and gaining momentum with regulators, says Terry Katz, CEO & Founder of the company.

When it comes to alcohol beverages, one of the most intelligent innovations has been the smart label, powered by encrypted NFC chips embedded directly into product packaging. When tapped with a smartphone, each chip generates a dynamic, tamper-evident verification process backed by 128-bit AES encryption and cloud-based authentication, all without requiring any application download by the user. This technology has seen measurable success in high-risk markets, particularly where counterfeiting and unauthorised imports were previously rampant.

In regions where such labels have been deployed, clients have reported a significant drop in suspected counterfeit cases, with some brands witnessing up to a 90 percent reduction in parallel trade within six months, and still falling. An added benefit is the realtime visibility into distribution and product journeys, which helps identify and eliminate grey market leakage and parallel importing.

This has resulted in millions of consumer taps per month, directly correlating with increased trust and repeat purchases. Effectiveness is tracked through activation analytics, tap data, geolocation heatmaps, and direct consumer feedback via the smart label interface.

NFC-Powered Protection

ForgeStop Technology Corporation (FTC), a connected product technology organisation specialises in secure, NFC-enabled smart labels. These labels protect brands from counterfeiting, diversion, and unauthorised parallel trade while enabling real-time consumer engagement directly from the bottle. Founded in 2019, FTC serves clients globally across the pharmaceuticals, luxury goods, electrical, and alcoholic beverage sectors. Its platform, InfoTAP, transforms each product into a digitally verifiable asset, delivering authentication, traceability, and communication in a single tap.

“Our proprietary solution is already trusted by leading Indian alcohol beverage companies, including Piccadily Distilleries as announced recently, and is gaining traction among several multinational brands entering or expanding within India,” informs Terry.

Smart, Seamless Interaction

What sets FTC apart is its brand-agnostic, modular platform. While each delivers a customised consumer experience, the backend remains unified and scalable, enabling rapid deployment across multiple SKUs and product lines, regardless of the brand or market segment.

Each FTC smart label acts as a two-way communication bridge. Consumers can instantly verify authenticity via smartphone without downloading any app, receive product-specific messages, videos or promotions, and report suspected issues in real-time via embedded feedback tools.

“Our chip-level authentication, combined with dynamic token generation and tamper status detection, makes replication virtually impossible. The margin of error is less than 0.01 percent and that only occurs when the user’s phone connectivity is compromised or the label has been physically damaged,” Terry elaborates.

Strategic Market Penetration

FTC has adopted a localised partnership strategy collaborating with key Indian stakeholders such as HS Oberoi Spirits. These alliances provide FTC with direct access to the brands most in need of protection, while helping to build a trusted reputation within the Indian market. In addition to B2B outreach, the company participates in key expos, industry panels, and trade publications to demonstrate its solution’s real-world application and measurable ROI to decision-makers across India’s alcoholic beverage ecosystem.

Education is considered a shared responsibility. FTC provides onboarding toolkits, tap demo assets, POS displays, and co-branded marketing content to help brands communicate clearly with consumers. “We also offer white-label microsites and dynamic tap pages tailored to each brand’s identity,” Terry adds. Additionally, FTC runs digital awareness campaigns to highlight the dangers of counterfeit alcohol and demonstrate how a simple phone tap can protect consumers and support authentic brands.

The company is in early-stage discussions with several Indian regulatory and enforcement bodies. “FTC’s secure-by-design architecture offers a complianceready framework that could integrate with track-andtrace systems or state excise departments, supporting both enforcement and public safety,” Terry shares.

Adaptive & Scalable

The primary challenge lies in India’s regulatory heterogeneity across states. To address this, ForgeStop’s modular deployment and cloud-based updates enable brands to customise compliance rules by state, ensuring local regulatory requirements are met without disrupting supply chains. FTC aims to collaborate with government stakeholders to pilot public–private initiatives that use such technology to prevent illicit sales and improve consumer safety at scale.

Pricing has also been designed to be scalable and affordable, with entry-level packages available for smaller producers and batch-level rollouts. “The cost per label typically starts at just a few rupees when deployed at volume, and our clients often find that the cost of protection is far outweighed by the revenue saved from counterfeit loss prevention and consumer retention,” Terry states.

The company also offers a pay-per-tap analytics dashboard and flexible implementation models, allowing smaller brands to get started without heavy upfront investment.

With a single smartphone tap, the solution offered by ForgeStop Technology Corporation helps safeguard customers, reclaim control of the distribution process, and transform every bottle into a new channel for digital storytelling and engagement.