Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the counterfeiting process in Italy, at a subnational level.Design/methodology/approach– The paper uses panel data estimators and mixture models regression.Findings– The paper finds that homogeneous clusters of regions could be derived, as a result of economic and geographical reasons. Moreover, household and public administration expenditure, indirect taxation, foreigners/population ratio and the number of ports have a positive impact on the counterfeiting diffusion index.Practical implications– The paper is practical as a source of reference in contrasting counterfeiting process.Originality/value– The paper uses new data applying recent econometric techniques to find homogeneous groups of regions on counterfeiting index.