Ombudsman: Some 40% of all tobacco products sold in Russia are counterfeit
About 35-40 percent of tobacco products sold on the Russian market are illegally produced, Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov said in an annual report to the Russian president, TASS reports.
“According to most cautious estimates, the share of illegal products has already reached 35-40 percent, which deals a serious blow to the budget of the Russian Federation, not to mention the quality of the falsified products and the scope of illegal production,” the report reads.
The business ombudsman suggested creating a unified state mechanism to control the tobacco market, similar to the Unified State Automatic Information System for alcohol products (EGAIS), developed by the Department for State Regulation of Economy and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
Lear MoreFake goods on the rise in India; illicit trade increases 44% in two years, new report shows
A study from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in India has revealed that the trade of fake goods in the country rocketed from 2011-2012 to 2013-2014. This confirmation that illicit goods are a pervasive part of the Indian economy – estimated to be between 8% and 15% of the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP) – serves as a stark reminder that the global trademark community urgently needs to focus awareness and enforcement efforts in the region.
The research was released by FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying Economy (CASCADE), which was set up in 2011 to explicitly address the growing illicit trade being witnessed in India. The primary aims of the committee are to generate awareness on the hazardous impact of counterfeit products in the country and to assist law enforcement agencies, including judges, the police and customs officials, in the fight against fakes. However, research evidencing the scale of the problem has also been a focus and its recent study, as well as a letter subsequently sent to the government, highlights a number of startling findings.
http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Blog/detail.aspx?g=5ac8d016-2fb8-4663-9319-b3142131a9f2
Lear MoreCombating Sale of Counterfeit and Falsified Medicines Online: A Losing Battle
The rapid growth of technology has transformed many brick-and-mortar businesses into online businesses, and medicines are now being sold over the internet. Influenced by the notions that online purchases are economical and do not require a prescription, the general public are keen to purchase medicine online through websites, social media and mobile apps. Online medicine purchase is presumed to be convenient and confidential, free from embarrassment of sharing personal and sensitive health information to a healthcare professional. Public in United States, Europe, Australia is generally aware that internet sales form part of the official medicines distribution channels, often a valid prescription is required for controlled medicine. However, unlicensed, substandard and falsified medicines with various dubious medical claims are advertised and sold illegally in many rogue online pharmacies (Jack, 2016). These include medications for weight loss, hair growth, and treatment of erectile dysfunction. Such medicines are termed as substandard, spurious, falsely labeled, falsified and counterfeit medical products by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Similarly, the European Commission defines such products as falsified medicines or fake medicines that pass themselves off as real, authorized medicines (European Commission, 2016). These medicines may contain substandard active ingredients, which are low quality and/or an incorrect amount, either too high or too low, and have not been properly evaluated by authorities in terms of quality, safety, and efficacy. It must be noted that falsified medicines are often confused with counterfeit medicines. According to European Commission, counterfeit medicines refers to medicines that do not comply with European Union law on intellectual and industrial property rights, for example, unregistered medicines sourced from parallel import (European Medicines Agency1). In this article, the illegal sales of both counterfeit and falsified medicines (CFMs) are discussed.
In 2012, the WHO estimated the CFMs industry to be worth USD 431 billion a year, but further estimates has not been reported in the recent years due to the fast growing, widespread practice of this industry, making it impractical to estimate on a global scale (Garrett,
2012). Authorities are finding it difficult to curb CFMs due to the lack of governance over the internet. Furthermore, fragmented cybercrime legislation leads to large substantive and procedural lacunae in law, rendering law enforcement efforts useless.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5432535/
Lear MoreRecord smuggling attempt thwarted in Poland
A record smuggling attempt of nine tonnes of tobacco was thwarted when Polish police found the contraband, worth PLN 5.5 million (EUR 1.2 million), in tins labelled as dog food.
The shipment was destined for Germany and was intercepted by police at the Polish-Slovak border crossing in Barwinek, southeastern Poland.
A Polish truck driver said he was transporting cans of dog food from Bulgaria to Germany, according to police.
But police found the cans were filled with tobacco from the UAE, intended for smoking in hookah water pipes. The driver has been detained.
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Fake cosmetics worth $100m seized in crackdown.
Almost 70 tonnes of fake cosmetics have been seized and three business owners detained in an ongoing crackdown by the Interior Ministry’s Counter Counterfeit Committee.
Meach Sophanna, undersecretary of state and chairman of the committee, said the crackdown was intended to protect the public from harmful products that risked their health.
“This has been an historical operation that has uncovered a huge number of fake products in our country,” Mr Sophanna said.
There have been several big arrests since the crackdown begun.
Chinese national Mao Li Jun was apprehended in Kandal province’s Takhmao city on March 31.
Officers confiscated 30 tonnes of fake Shiseido cosmetics and charged him with selling fake goods.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/38158/fake-cosmetics-worth–100m-seized-in-crackdown/
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Counterfeit, smuggled cigarettes thriving in India
The illicit market in smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes is thriving in India, so much so that industry reports have claimed that the consumption of such cigarettes increased by 90% last year. Several studies conducted by the industry and frequent seizures at sea ports and airports have revealed that 17 billion cigarette sticks are smuggled into India each year. These much cheaper, smuggled and contraband cigarettes, which according to a FICCI study have doubled in the past one decade, cost a huge revenue loss to the national exchequer every year (over Rs 9,000 crore in 2015), apart from undermining the government’s campaign against smoking by making cigarettes increasingly expensive.
According to Euromonitor International, illegal cigarettes in India have more than doubled, having increased to 23.9 billion sticks in 2015 from 11.1 billion sticks in 2004, making India the fourth largest illegal cigarette market in the world and clearly a preferred destination for international cigarette smugglers.
http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/9347-counterfeit-smuggled-cigarettes-thriving-india
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Cambodia seizes 68 tonnes of fake cosmetic products
Cambodian authorities have confiscated 68 tonnes of fake cosmetic products that purported to be made in countries like Japan and South Korea, an official said, calling it the country’s largest bust of counterfeit make-up.
The cosmetics included bottles of hair dye, skin-whitening creams and shampoo worth “millions of dollars”, said Meach Sophana, the head of government’s counterfeit committee.
The goods were produced locally but labelled as products made in countries like Japan, South Korea, China, the US, Germany and Thailand, said Meach Sophana.
Some of the cosmetics had fake branding from the luxury Japanese skin care firm Shiseido, he added.
“This is a huge quantity in the history of counterfeit crackdowns in our country,” the official told reporters.
http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/05/09/cambodia-seizes-68-tonnes-of-fake-cosmetic-products/
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Huge haul of cigarettes and fuel seized by Revenue
Almost 45 million cigarettes worth €23.5m were seized in 2016 while nearly 400,000 litres of fuel were confiscated, according to the Revenue’s annual report.
Almost 6,000 raids led to the recovery of 1,700kg of drugs with a street value of €30m, while more than 71,000 counterfeit goods such as watches and clothing were taken in by the authorities. Just under 1,600 vehicles were seized.
There were 73 separate cash seizures, mainly at airports and ports, amounting to just under €1,000,000. Calls made to a confidential number to report illegal activities resulted in seizures of about 50,000 cigarettes, 12kg of tobacco, and hundreds of litres of beer and wine.
The Revenue touted one of the biggest successes by authorities following a raid in Northern Ireland resulting in the seizure of 26,000 litres of illicit fuel. A further 14 tanks of the same fuel were seized subsequently in a joint north and south operation at Belfast and Dublin ports, bringing the total quantity taken by the authorities to 390,000 litres.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/huge-haul-of-cigarettes-and-fuel-seized-by-revenue-448876.html
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Newcastle tobacco plot foiled after man found with more than 350,000 illicit cigarettes
A tobacco smuggling plot has been stubbed out after a man was caught with more than 350,000 cigarettes stashed at his Newcastle home.
Derek Tams was found with the illicit hoard, which also included 220kg of rolling tobacco, in vehicles parked in his garage at Essex Close, Cruddas Park, in the city’s West End.
Unbeknown to the 58-year-old, he was being watched by HM Revenue and Customs officers as he transported the non-UK duty paid cigarettes into the vehicles, a court heard.
The officers then raided the address and found the illegal stash, as well as more than £47,000 in cash.
In total, around £136,688 had been cheated from the tax man, prosecutors said.
Now, Tams, of Essex Close, Cruddas Park, has avoided a jail sentence after he argued he was only a “foot soldier” in the illicit operation.
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-tobacco-plot-foiled-after-12972815
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Petroleum smuggling rampant in Rautahat
Gas station operators in Rautahat district headquarters Gaur and elsewhere in the district are reportedly involved in smuggling petroleum products across the border, much to the chagrin of customers, for whom it is hard to get fuel in required quantity long after the unofficial blockade ended.
There are three petrol stations, namely Shushil, Gupta and Aslam petrol pumps in Gaur Municipality.
Though the pumps receive fuel once every week without fail, much to everyone’s surprise, they run out of stock the very next day.
Sources say the government’s recent directive to gas stations not to dispense petroleum products in jerry cans and other receptacles hasn’t done anything to stop the illegal practice. Though as per the rule, petrol stations are allowed to only directly fuel vehicles, a fuel smuggling racket is said to be operating hand-in-gloves with the petrol station operators.
“Every day large amount of petro-products is smuggled to India in jerry cans loaded in auto-rickshaws. The trade has flourished of late with no one, not even the local police, willing to do anything to stop them,” lamented a local youth Pusparaj Yadav, adding that petro-products are dearer by 15 rupees in the Indian market.
https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/petroleum-smuggling-rampant-rautahat/
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