Photo by Nichtvermittelbar
(BRUSSELS) – Fake and potentially dangerous goods worth nearly EUR 740 million were intercepted at EU customs borders in 2018, according to new figures released on Thursday by the European Commission.
Much of the increase in interceptions of fake goods being imported into the EU in 2018 was due to a large amount of small parcels in express and postal traffic, says the report.
Detention figures for seized consignments jumped from 57,433 in 2017 to 69,354 in 2018, though the total amount of articles detained decreased compared to previous years.
Almost 27 million articles that infringed on intellectual property rights (IPR) were detained in 2018 with a street value of nearly 740 million.
The rise in small packages entering the EU through online sales has made the job of customs officers who track down and seize counterfeit goods that are often dangerous for consumers more difficult, said Pierre Moscovici, the Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Custom: “Protecting the integrity of our Single Market and Customs Union, and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in the international supply chain are also priorities.” He added that it was important to continue stepping up efforts against counterfeiting and piracy.
The top categories of detained articles were cigarettes, which accounted for 15% of the overall amount of detained articles. This was followed by toys (14%), packaging material (9%), labels, tags and stickers (9%) and clothing (8%). Products for daily personal use in the home such as body care articles, medicines, toys and electrical household goods accounted for nearly 37% of the total number of detained articles.
China continued to be the main source country for goods infringing intellectual property rights. North Macedonia was the main provenance for counterfeit alcoholic beverages. Turkey was the top source for other beverages, perfumes and cosmetics.
EU customs saw a high number of fake watches, mobile phones and accessories, ink cartridges and toners, CDs/DVDs, labels, tags and stickers from Hong Kong, China. The main source for computer equipment was India, Cambodia for cigarettes and Bosnia and Herzegovina for packaging material.
A complementary “Report on EU enforcement of IPRs: results at EU borders and in Member States covering the period 2013-2017” is also published by the EU’s Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO’s) Observatory. This report complements the trends report on border detentions over the past years with data on detentions by national enforcement authorities in the internal market.
EU SEIZURES AT THE BORDER OF GOODS INFRINGING ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS – factsheet
