Brussels, 22/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - “Despite the economic crisis, the figures remain impressive”, said John Taylor on Thursday 22 July on behalf of the customs services of the European Commission, presenting the 2009 report on customs interventions to enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) within the European Union. In 2009, the customs services recorded more than 43,500 cases concerning goods suspected of being counterfeit or pirated, representing a total of 118 million items. If, in the past, infringements of IPR most often related to luxury goods, everyday goods such as drinks, cosmetics and toys are increasingly affected. Among the products with the largest reported numbers of confiscations were tobacco products (35% of total confiscations, including 19% for cigarettes alone) and medicines (10%). Nearly 80% of the goods intercepted were destroyed or subjected to legal proceedings to determine the infringement.
China, which was behind 64% of the products seized, is once again the main source of counterfeit or pirated goods. “It is the main problem in the world”, Taylor confirmed. The items from China most frequently confiscated are tobacco products, beauty products, clothing, mobile telephones and CDs and DVDs. The European civil servant pointed out that in 2009, the EU and China signed a customs action plan to tackle the phenomenon. One of the first measures taken was the creation of a network of experts. The commissioner for customs, Algirdas Šemeta, will visit Shanghai in early September, where he will take part in the EU-China conference on customs issues, on the sidelines of the World Expo. He will also be working with the Chinese authorities to look into the possibility of extending until the end of 2012 the joint action plan and to add to its contents. Other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, are also the sources of many confiscations on the borders of the EU.
Before the end of this year, the Commission is to launch a legislative initiative to replace existing European legislation (Regulation (EC) 1383/2003). It will take as its basis the results of the public consultation carried out this spring, asking interested parties about the growing problem of internet dispatching and the costs of warehousing and destruction. The Commission's annual report is available at: http: //ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/customs/customs_controls/ counterfeit_piracy/statistics/statistics_2009.pdf (M.B./transl.fl)