N.Y. is top destination for smuggled cigarettes
A study released in March by a tax group shows an increase in cigarette smuggling to New York, which tops the list as the top smuggling destination and the state with the highest tax rate on cigarettes. New York was also the highest ranked in a similar report last year by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research group based out of Michigan. The Tax Foundation wrote in its March 19 report that the highest inbound cigarette smuggling state was New York followed by Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin. The highest outbound cigarette smuggling state was New Hampshire, followed by Wyoming, Idaho, Virginia and Delaware.
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Report: High cigarette tax fuels black market in state
PHOENIX — A cigarette tax higher than neighboring states and cheaper prices on American Indian reservations have helped fuel a growing a black market for cigarettes in Arizona, according a study by a Washington, D.C., think tank. The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates for transparent and broad-based taxation, estimated that smuggled cigarettes made up 51.5 percent of Arizona’s cigarette consumption in 2012. While Arizona taxes cigarettes at $2 per pack, the taxes in neighboring states range from 80 cents per pack in Nevada to $1.66 per pack in New Mexico. American Indian reservations also are less-expensive sources of cigarettes. “All this works in concert to make it a very profitable market,” said Scott Drenkard, economist at the Tax Foundation. Arizona’s estimated percentage of smuggled cigarettes ranked second in the report to 56.9 percent in New York, which had the nation’s the highest tax per pack at $4.35.
Lear More“Fake It Til You Make It” Just Got a Lot Harder
The streets of N.Y.C.’s Chinatown are wet with tears as U.S. Border Patrol officers seize a record $1.7 billion of fake bags, clothes and electronics. Stroll down New York City’s Canal Street and you’re bound to stumble on one—or more like 20—vendors peddling counterfeit apparel and accessories: “Louis Vuitton” purses, “Rolex” watches and “Apple” devices. Armed with a keen eye for detail, these entrepreneurial salesmen and women are the masters of (illegal) capitalism, but soon they may be forced to outfit their stands with a lot less merchandise. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is cracking down on counterfeits in record numbers, according the group’s latest report on “intellectual property rights” seizures at U.S. borders unveiled this week. And just how many faux luxury goods—handbags, watches, consumer electronics and shoes—is that? There were 22,848 overall seizures, or an average of 66 per day, in the CBP’s 2013 fiscal year—7 percent more raids than in the previous year. And talk about a lot of Louis; the goods’ estimated cash value increased by 38 percent to more than $1.7 billion.
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Counterfeiting: bad medicine – International Report
Two different news reports recently presented two very different sides of the counterfeiting story. CNN recently did a piece about counterfeits in China, with a particular emphasis on Beats, a brand of headphones owned by rapper Dr Dre. The report stated that headphones that will set you back $400 in the West can be picked up for a mere $70 in China. It stated how a recent joint operation involving US and Chinese officials netted 243,000 counterfeit goods, including Beats and major brands such as Apple and Microsoft. The report went on to discuss some of the tricks used by counterfeiters to avoid detection, such as double packaging of goods, first in the counterfeit packaging that the product will be sold in and then in different packaging which is removed when the goods reach their destination.
The second report was in Business Day and dealt with the issue of counterfeit medicines. The report gave an insight into the problem of counterfeit drugs, which has become so serious that major pharmaceutical companies have teamed up with Interpol to establish a programme aimed at training law enforcement officers to identify fake prescription drugs.
http://www.iam-magazine.com/reports/detail.aspx?g=bc0ef626-d430-4f85-827e-b5fbdb1dff1d
Lear MoreTobacco Firms Step Up Fight Against Cigarette Smuggling
Labs Examine Fake Smokes; Critics Say Industry Turns Blind Eye to Smuggling of Real Cigarettes
SOUTHAMPTON, England—At a network of high-tech laboratories here, vast machines puff away on uspect cigarettes and electron microscopes peer at packaging, all to fight the flourishing scourge of global tobacco smuggling. Workers at British American Tobacco PLC’s sprawling campus, 75 miles southwest of London, analyze hundreds of thousands of seized cigarettes each year, attempting to keep up with counterfeiters’ increasingly.
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India Ranks Third for Counterfeit Goods Seized In US: Report
WASHINGTON: China remains the primary source for counterfeit and pirated goods seized in the United States, an official report has said. In the year 2013, Chinese counterfeit and pirated goods seized in the U.S. accounted for a total value of $1.1 billion, representing 68 percent of all such goods seizures by the Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in its annual report. China was closely followed by counterfeit and pirated goods from Hong Kong, which accounted for 25 percent of the total goods seized. China and Hong Kong was followed by India with a distant third position accounting for three percent of the total goods seized, the report said.The number of intellectual property right (IPR) seizures increased nearly seven percent from 22,848 in fiscal 2012 to 24,361 in fiscal 2013.The MSRP of seized goods increased from $1.26 billion in FY 2012 to $1.74 billion in FY 2013
Lear MoreNigeria: Investigation – How Multibillion Naira Illicit Tobacco Trade Thrives
Officials say fake cigarettes are huge public problems to Nigeria, heightening the existing public health concern posed by growing but uncontrolled tobacco market in Nigeria. A 2005 study by the World Health Organization, WHO, estimated that more than 30 per cent of cigarettes smoked in Nigeria are smuggled. A more recent (2012) publication by the World Custom Journal claimed the volume have dropped to less than 10 percent. A Global Adult Tobacco survey on Nigeria estimates that Nigeria is home to 4.5 million smoking adults who expose 27 million others to harmful secondhand smoke. On the whole, Nigerians spend an average of N89.5 billion yearly on tobacco, most of which are illicitly traded and smuggled into the country.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201403210376.html
Lear MoreAmazon, Dangdang pull plug on fake stores
E-commerce companies Amazon and Dangdang said yesterday they have shut down several online retailers accused of selling counterfeit cosmetics via their platforms. According to a consumer affairs report shown on China Central Television on Wednesday, the stores were offering famous name brands at hugely discounted prices. In one case, the Meihanmeizhuang Cosmetics Store said the products it sold via Dangdang were sourced from a wholesale market in Beijing. The manager of the online store, which operated from a residential complex in Beijing’s Fangshan District, said he sold about 2,000 cosmetic products from 10 brands via Dangdang, and sent out goods worth more than 100,000 yuan (US$16,100) every day. The program showed the store’s warehouse packed with items purportedly made by Estee Lauder, Calvin Klein, Versace, Chanel and Shiseido.
http://www.ecns.cn/business/2014/03-21/105873.shtml
Lear MoreKPDNKK to take stern action against F1 counterfeit goods trader and dealers
PUTRAJAYA: The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) ministry will take stern action against traders and dealers found selling Formula One (F1) related counterfeit goods. Its Enforcement Division director Roslan Mahayuddin said the sellers will be dragged to court and could face imprisonment unlike in previous years where sellers were only fined for selling pirated goods.
Lear MoreGreaves Cotton in effort to curb fake auto parts
Greaves Cotton Limited, a manufacturer of diesel auto engines, has embarked on an initiative to curb the growing sale of spurious auto parts. The company is conducting nationwide raids to expose the increasing spurious parts business. The products seized from just three hubs in north India stood at Rs 2 crore. The total market for auto engines related spurious parts is approximately Rs 400 crore. Some of the fake products unearthed by the enforcement team are camp folleniers, rockers, bearings, rocker arms, ring sets, pistons, cam shafts, connecting rods, feed pumps, ring sets, and push rods. The enforcement team consisting of the Indian Police and Greaves Cotton’s legal team have been working closely to identity both manufacturing units and selling outlets and locations of counterfeit spares across major cities and trade hubs in India.
Greaves Cotton in effort to curb fake auto parts
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