Customs seized more than 1.1 million fake goods at Bulgarian EU external borders in 2017
Customs officers seized 1 109 979 fake and counterfeit good at Bulgaria’s EU external borders in 2017, an increase of 74 per cent compared with 2016, according to a report released by the European Commission on September 27.
Overall, more than 31 million fake and counterfeit goods, with a street value of more than 580 million euro, were seized by customs authorities at EU external borders in 2017, the report said.
Although the total figures for the EU have declined since 2016, fake potentially dangerous goods for day-to-day use like healthcare products, medicines, toys and electrical goods now make up a much higher proportion of all seizures – 43 per cent of all detained goods came from this category, the Commission said.
Overall, the top category of fake goods was foodstuffs, accounting for 24 per cent of the overall amount of detained articles.
This was followed by toys (11 per cent), cigarettes (nine per cent) and clothes (seven per cent).
China continued to be the main source country from where intellectual property rights infringing goods were shipped to the EU, but for certain product sectors, other countries were the main provenance like the Republic of Moldova for alcoholic beverages, the United States for other beverages, Turkey for clothing, Hong Kong, China for mobile phones and accessories; CDs/DVDs; ink cartridges and toners and labels, tags and stickers, and India for medicines, the EC report said.
Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs said: “The EU’s Customs Union is on the front line when it comes to protecting citizens from fake, counterfeit and sometimes highly dangerous goods. Stopping imports of counterfeits into the EU also supports jobs and the wider economy as a whole.
“The European Union stands in support of intellectual property and will continue our campaign to protect consumer health as well as protecting businesses from criminal infringement of their rights,” Moscovici said.
(Archive photo: Bulgarian Interior Ministry press centre)
