New Toy Association Report Exposes 3 Main Factors Contributing to the Rise in Counterfeit & Knockoff Toys Sold Online and Details Potential Solutions
It’s a scene from any parent’s worst nightmare. Just last month, a child received a gift of what looked to be a popular magnetic toy set that comes in various rainbow-colored shapes and encourage kids to build and create. But in fact, the toy was an illicit product sold by a third-party vendor via a popular ecommerce site, and did not comply with the strict safety standards and regulations that toys are subject to in the United States. As a result, an unknowing consumer was able to purchase the set, and the four-year-old was able to easily break apart the toys to ingest more than a dozen magnets, causing a life threatening situation.
The proliferation of copycat and unregulated toys via online marketplaces raises significant safety and health hazards for consumers. The Toy Association’s new white paper, “The Real Threat of Fake Toys: The Increase of Knockoff and Counterfeit Toys Sold Online & How to Fight Back,” identifies three main factors contributing to the upsurge in knock-off, counterfeit, and otherwise illicit toys being sold via online marketplaces, including: insufficient vetting by marketplaces of sellers and products sold online; a burden of enforcement that is disproportionately placed on the IP rights holders (the brand owners); and consumers who are largely unaware of the scope of the problem and unknowingly purchase these products thinking they are held to the same standards as toys sold by legitimate companies.
“Safety is the U.S. toy industry’s number one priority and one child injured from a toy is one too many. Counterfeit products break laws, risk lives, and should not be sold anywhere, but can be abundant on some online marketplaces,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of The Toy Association. “Strong action must be taken to address these abuses. The toy industry is calling on all ecommerce marketplaces, the government, and all other stakeholders to work together to effectively and swiftly fix this problem before another child is needlessly injured by a counterfeit toy.”
Added Pasierb: “Consumers have come to rely on ecommerce platforms to provide discounted pricing and wide selection of name-brand quality toys also found at brick-and-mortar retail. However, under the current marketplace system, illicit sellers with little or no accountability take advantage of this consumer faith by offering inferior and unsafe counterfeit toys that put our children at risk. Anyone selling toys in the U.S. must be held to the same high safety standards that apply to the toy brands consumers have come to know and trust.”
Lear More
Customs Dept seizes smuggled cigarettes worth RM7.25m in Port Klang.
The Royal Malaysian Customs Department seized 9.7 million cigarette sticks estimated at RM7.25 million, in an operation at the Container Inspection Field here on Jan 4.
Customs director-general Datuk Seri T. Subromaniam said a 35-year-old shipping agent was also arrested during the operation.
“We inspected a 40-foot container and found D-Blend and Canyon brand of cigarettes which have been smuggled into the country.
“The 9.7 million cigarette sticks seized were estimated at RM776,000 with unpaid taxes amounting to RM6.5 million,“ he told a press conference which was also attended by Customs assistant director-general (Enforcement) Datuk Azimah Abd Hamid here, today.
Subromaniam said the contents of the container were falsely declared as gloves, phone accessories and cooking utensils on the Customs forms.
Lear More£10,000 worth of fake goods in Bucks to be destroyed.
Time has been called by Trading Standards officers on more than £10,000 worth of counterfeit alcohol, cigarettes and designer clothes seized in the past three years.
Around 4,500 illegal or dangerous items, locked away in their evidence strongroom in the bowels of County Hall, Aylesbury, must now be disposed of to make room for seizures during 2019.
Lawrence Eldridge, who supervises investigations for Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards, said the goods to be disposed of had either been seized during operations, forfeited after successful prosecutions, or signed over to investigating officers by co-operative traders.
Where possible goods will have the fake brands removed so that they can be re-used through charities. Where that isn’t possible, or something is dangerous, the goods are destroyed.
https://www.mix96.co.uk/news/local/2779899/10000-worth-of-fake-goods-in-bucks-to-be-destroyed/
Lear More
Leicester man jailed after gang caught with 1.2 million illegal cigarettes.
A man from Leicester caught red-handed in a car park has been jailed for his role in a huge cigarette smuggling plot.
Atlaf Umarji was a member of a gang which was arrested with more than 1.2 million non-duty paid cigarettes outside a Little Chef in the Stoke area in January 2014.
The operation, led by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators, resulted in the seizure of a haul of 777 branded cigarettes, worth more than £600,000 in unpaid duty.
Umarji, of Gwendolen Road, attempted to escape in a van and was filmed throwing cigarettes out of the window as he drove away, HMRC said.
The 50-year-old and his accomplices – Paul Taft, Surinder Heer and Mark Taylor – appeared at Stoke Crown Court last week and pleaded guilty to fraudulent evasion of excise duty.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/leicester-man-jailed-after-gang-2420428
Lear MoreKorean Women Caught In Chennai Trying To Smuggle 24 Kg Gold Under Clothes.
Two Korean women passengers were detained for allegedly smuggling 24 kg of gold worth Rs. 8 crore by the customs department at the Anna International Terminal today, officials said.
The customs officials detained two South Korean women who were found walking in a suspicious manner as if they were carrying a heavy load.
Acting on specific inputs, the air intelligence unit personnel of the department intercepted the passengers who arrived from Hong Kong, an official press release said.
A personal examination of the two revealed 12 gold bars weighing one kg each concealed in their inner garments, it said.
Lear More
Apple thanks Korean police for seizing $900,000 of counterfeit accessories.
Apple will be thanking the Korean police for seizing and preventing the sale of counterfeit accessories for its products worth 1 billion won ($892,000), by presenting a plaque to investigators who apprehended local criminals behind the trade.
Senior regional director for Apple’s Asia-Pacific operations Donald Shruhan will reportedly visit the Bucheon Sosa police station in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, on Friday to present the plaque to the officers involved in the regional crackdown.
The criminals were locally distributing fake Apple charing cables and earphones, reports the Korea Herald. The knock-off products are said to have been imported from China, with police still working to trace how the goods entered the country.
The apprehended distributors are also under investigation on suspicions of fraud and trademark violation.
Shruhan is currently leading Apple’s anti-counterfeiting operations in China, and previously worked with Pfizer to crack down on counterfeit Viagra sales and production.
Gold smuggling racket busted.
Personnel of the Commissioner’s Task Force (CTF) on Tuesday unearthed a gold smuggling racket, operating from Mumbai, with the confiscation of jewellery weighing 16.617 kg, valued at ₹5,05,98,765. Four persons — Shilpesh Jain and Jeyesh Jain of Mumbai and Manish Jain and Pankaj Jain of the city — were arrested for their alleged involvement in the racket.
The gang was allegedly selling gold without any bills and was evading tax causing huge loss to the government.
The modus operandi of the traders was to import the yellow metal illegally from Mumbai and sell the same to the bullion merchants in Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and other places.
The team led by CTF Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) G. Rajiv Kumar laid a trap and took the four persons into custody, while they were taking gold in a hotel at Governorpet.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/gold-smuggling-racket-busted/article25944418.ece
Lear More53-yr-old arrested at IGI airport for trying to smuggle gold worth Rs 35 lakh.
The Customs on Monday arrested a 53-year-old labourer working at a garments factory in Punjab from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after he was caught pretending to be a wheelchair-bound differently-abled passenger to allegedly smuggle gold worth R35 lakh. The gold was concealed in a cloth belt, which the passenger was wearing around his waist, officials said.
According to a Customs officer, the man, landed at the Delhi airport from Dubai and was intercepted after he crossed the green channel on the basis of a tip-off.
“He was asked to co-operate for personal frisking and baggage search. During the search, we found the man was wearing a belt on his waist inside his clothes. Inside the belt, there were three pieces of gold weighing 1.2 kgs. Total value of the recovered gold is Rs 35.22 lakh. The passenger was arrested and the gold was seized,” said Anubha Sinha, joint commissioner, Customs, IGI airport.
Lear MoreShanghai police bust gang for fake Dyson hairdryers.
Shanghai police have cracked a criminal gang suspected of manufacturing and selling fake Dyson hairdryers, a fashionable icon coveted by the Chinese middle class and young people.
The gang of 36, based in Huizhou, Guangdong province, had a clear division of labour in production, wholesale and retail, said the police, who received reports from the public last August that some consumers had bought fake Dyson hairdryers from stores on various online shopping platforms.
Two production sites were raided, and the suspects were arrested on Dec 14 on suspicion of counterfeiting a registered trademark, police said last Friday.
Nearly 400 finished products, more than 1,500 semi-finished products and more than 200,000 spare parts were seized.
The hairdryers by Dyson, headquartered in Britain, have been popular since their market debut in China in August 2016.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/shanghai-police-bust-gang-for-fake-dyson-hairdryers
Lear More
NAFDAC seizes fake products worth N60 million in Lagos.
The National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has confiscated fake drugs worth N60 million from a warehouse in Lagos.
This was contained in a press statement signed by NAFDAC Director General, Prof. Moji Adeyeye on Monday in Abuja.
“Following a tip off by a concerned citizen, officers of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of the NAFDAC and the police stormed the supermarket and warehouse owned by one Mr. Nzube at the Trade fair complex Lagos.
“The warehouse was raided for possession, storage, importation, sales and distribution of dangerous and unregistered cosmetics.
“Found in the store were Glutathione Injection, Herbal Skin Doctor Collagen Ampoules, Lansexin in vial bottles, Kojic-San Injection Face Cream, B.F.G.F Collagen Polypeptide in vial bottles, amongst others,” she said.
https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/01/07/nafdac-seizes-fake-products-worth-n60-million-in-lagos/
Lear More