Counterfeits: 35 million products intercepted by the EU in 2014

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Oct 29, 2015

The European Commission announced that last year European Union customs registered 95,000 counterfeiting cases, intercepting 35 million products. Clothing is the fourth most affected industry, with 5% of the total, while China is at the source of 80% of all imitations.

Behind China there are Hong Kong (8.2%), the UAE (2.18%), Turkey (2.08%), India (1.16%), Peru (1.03%) and Malaysia (0.82%). Container shipping remains the industry's preferred means of transportation, with 23 million articles seized, a huge decrease compared to 82 million in 2010. Last year, however, was remarkable for the reported rise in mail-delivered counterfeiting, with 72,000 cases recorded compared to 48,000 in 2010.

Ads

In detail, 1.5 million clothing items were seized (the originals of the imitated products were worth €60.6 million), as well as 520,600 accessories, 459,000 sport shoes and 1.2 million other footwear products. As for cosmetics, customs officers seized 931,900 products and fragrances, and 860,700 personal care products.

"These figures are a clear indication that the industrialisation of counterfeiting is growing", lamented Christian Peugeot, the President of Unifab. "Happily, the means and actions undertaken to fight pro-actively against this plague aren't in vain. Each year tens of millions of fake products are taken off the market, thanks to the meticulous, painstaking work of national customs officers, carried out to protect consumer safety."