Customs officials have intercepted a spike in counterfeit products on the EU’s internal market in 2023. Counterfeit games, CDs and DVDs are very popular.
“2023 is a record year for the EU internal market, achieving by far the highest values in the past twelve years,” said a joint report from the European Commission and the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
In total, more than 152 million items were seized at the EU’s external borders and in the internal market last year. This corresponds to an increase of 77 percent compared to the previous year (86 million articles). The value of the discovered counterfeit products increased by 68 percent to approximately 3.4 billion euros (2022: 2.0 billion euros).
Labels will be applied later
Just like last year, counterfeit games were seized very often. According to the report, toys and CDs and DVDs followed in second and third place. Packaging materials and labels were also regularly seized. This shows that products are increasingly only labeled within the EU, the authorities report. This should prevent goods from being noticed as counterfeit at the border.
According to the information, the majority of goods last year were not detained at the EU’s external borders, but discovered on the internal market. Within the EU, 138 million objects were confiscated. The authority also attributes the significant increase to online trading. The majority of counterfeits are now sent by post.
More than half of the products come from China
However, the number of goods seized at the external borders has fallen, it is said. According to the report, more than half of these products come from China (56 percent), followed by other Asian countries. The European Commission warned that counterfeit products could be dangerous to consumers. The products may be harmful or unsafe.
Source: Krone
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