Last year, EU customs officials seized €65.6 million worth of counterfeit clothes, €5.8 million in accessories, €47.3 million in trainers and €23.6 million of other types of footwear.In addition, €171.4 million worth of watches, €57.5 million of jewellery and accessories, €52.3 million of handbags and leather goods, and €12.6 million worth of perfumes and cosmetics, all of course fakes.
Fake clothes amounted to 7% of the number of items seized, the fourth-ranked category after food (24%), toys (11%) and cigarettes (9%). China was again top of the list of the fake products’ countries of origins, with 73% of the goods seized, with another 10% coming from Hong Kong. They were followed by Turkey (4.2%), Vietnam (2.6%), Syria (2%), India (1.9%) and Egypt (1.4%).The most effective customs departments in terms of the number of articles seized were those of Lithuania, with 6.1 million items (+26%), France, with 4.2 million (+118%), and Romania with 3.03 million (-17%).UNIFAB is worried by the decline in the number of fake goods seized Europe-wide. Numbers were indeed down strongly in Denmark (-98%), the Czech Republic (-92%), Croatia (-92%) and Sweden (-86%).
“The [French] manufacturers association (…) is concerned about the decrease in the number of counterfeit goods seized by customs in Europe,” stated UNIFAB, whose president, Christian Peugeot, called for a greater mobilisation across Europe to stem this erosion. “The figures show that awareness [of this problem] in EU countries must be urgently raised, and the training of customs officials by member states must be intensified,” added Peugeot.