Brussels, 14/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference on 14 July, Taxation and Internal Market Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta set out the main points of the Commission's 2010 report on the customs union. He took stock of the work carried out by the customs offices in enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR), infringement of which has, he said, a negative impact on innovation, new job creation and society in general.
The number of cases of IPR infringement dealt with by customs has been steadily rising over the last 10 years. The latest figures show a dramatic increase from 43,000 in 2009 to 80,000 in 2010. He argued that this clearly shows that customs are committed to maintaining high levels of enforcement at the border and that the Commission is also committed to further improve the legal and operational rules. He said, too, that he had presented a proposal for new customs rules on 24 May as part of the Commission's comprehensive package on IPR in the single market. Quantity of goods seized: the commissioner said that over 100 million articles were stopped by customs, less than in 2009, though this does not, he regretted, mean that the problem was being solved. The goods, he said, are entering the EU in smaller packages but in bigger numbers, which makes life more difficult for customs. Means of shipment: in almost 50,000 cases, goods were sent in postal packages. This figure is higher than the total amount of cases from all forms of transport in 2009. This is linked to the development of e-commerce, which makes distribution of all kinds of IPR-infringing goods, especially fakes, easier. Such goods may be of poor quality or even dangerous. With little information, shipments are difficult to identify and every time a package is found, regardless of whether it contains just one or several items, the administrative burden is increased. Seized goods: customs, the commissioner said, detain all sorts of goods. In 2010, cigarettes were the goods most seized, accounting for 34% of the overall amount, followed by clothing and toys. Most infringements identified by customs involved trademarks, though some detentions involved other rights, such as patents and geographical indications. This confirmed the usefulness of providing customs with the necessary legal base to enforce a wide range of rights at the border, he stated. Where the goods come from: overall, China continues to be the main source country for IPR-infringing goods - 85% of the total in terms of articles. However, for certain product categories, Turkey, Hong Kong and India were the main source countries. The commissioner indicated that the EU-China customs action plan to tackle illegal trade had been extended until the end of 2012. Intervention record: While, in 10% of cases, the goods seized were found to be authentic and were released, in 90% of cases, the goods were destroyed or a court case was started. Value of the goods: in 2010, customs recorded the estimated value of the equivalent genuine products, in total over €1 billion. This is the first time an indication has been available of the value of goods detained by customs and it provides a further indicator of the scale of the phenomenon, the commissioner said. He highlighted the need for more collaborative work between enforcement authorities and for enhanced consumer awareness. (F.G./transl.rt)