Brussels, 31/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - In 2013, customs authorities in the European Union detained nearly 36 million articles suspected of violating intellectual property rights (IPR) in 2013, according to the Commission's annual report on customs actions to enforce IPR. Although this is less than previous years, the value of the intercepted goods still represents more than €760 million. The report also gives statistics on the type, provenance and transport method of counterfeit products detained at the EU's external borders.
Clothing (12% of all articles detained) and medicines (10%) are among the top categories of goods detained. Postal and courier packages accounted for around 70% of customs interventions in 2013, with 19% of the detentions in postal traffic concerning medicines. Around 90% of all detained goods were either destroyed or a court case was initiated to determine the infringement. China continues being the main source of fake products with 66% of all products detained coming from China and 13% coming from Hong Kong. Other countries, however, were the top source for specific product categories, such as Turkey for perfumes and cosmetics and Egypt for foodstuffs. (LC)