HK Customs responds on enforcement against illicit cigarettes
Hong Kong (HKSAR) – Regarding a study on illicit tobacco in Hong Kong released today (September 9), the Customs and Excise Department, in response to media enquiries, said that Customs has been sustaining vigorous enforcement against illicit cigarette activities at all fronts, including smuggling, distribution, storage and peddling activities. With Customs’ stringent enforcement actions, illicit cigarette activities have reduced significantly. In the first eight months this year, public complaints recorded a drop by 16% as compared to the same period last year. A Customs spokesperson said that the strategy of enforcement at source remains to be effective with 15 significant (more than 500 000 sticks of illicit cigarettes) cases smashed till end of August this year. This was effective in preventing the smuggling of illicit tobacco into the territory.
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Alibaba Group signs anti-counterfeiting deal with CBBC
Alibaba Group has signed a deal with a British trade body that will help members of the UK organisation protect their IP across the China e-commerce company’s sites.Under the agreement, Alibaba will work with members of the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) to remove product listings that allegedly infringe their rights, subject to takedown notices.The CBBC will also provide guidance to its members on using the existing notice-and-takedown systems provided by the Chinese company, whose sites include Alibaba.com and Taobao.com.
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Amazon not liable for copyright infringement, US court rules
A US court has rejected an appeal from the owner of sandybeachgifts.com, Sandy Routt, who claimed that online retailer Amazon is responsible for copyright infringement by its affiliate websites.
Routt claimed that some of the participating sites in the Amazon Associates programme, an arrangement between certain websites and the online retailer where they advertise Amazon products in return for fees for marketing, used photographs taken by her on their sites without permission.
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Trucker Caught with About $1.8M of Illegal Tobacco
MONTREAL, QC— A truck driver was arrested by the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) after 15,330 kg of tobacco was found in his tractor semi-trailer on August 20. The CBSA, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Sûreté du Québec stated they thought there was a smuggling risk with the truck when it pulled into the border. They referred the driver and his vehicle to a complete inspection and found the tobacco hidden behind boxes of fresh vegetables. “This operation is the result of combined efforts with our partners to address the problem of large-scale tobacco smuggling,” said Benoît Chiquette, Regional Director General, CBSA, Quebec Region. “Seizures of this magnitude remove significant quantities of illicit tobacco from the contraband market.” According to CBSA, one kg of loose tobacco has an estimated value of around $120. That means that a 15,000-kg load is worth about $1.8M on the street.
http://www.todaystrucking.com/trucker-caught-with-about-18m-of-illegal-tobacco
Lear MoreCurbing the Menace of Illicit Trade and Tobacco Smuggling
Abimbola Akosile examines the tobacco industry in Nigeria, with focus on illicit trade and illegal smuggling of products and government’s attempts to check and regulate a lucrative sector. Someone once told this reporter a simple fact about Nigeria. He said, albeit in a cynical manner, that if one wants any item to flourish in Nigeria’s huge markets, just wait for the government to ban that item.
To back his argument, he pointed at rice, frozen poultry products, and used tyres, which although under the import prohibition list, still daily flow into Nigeria through both monitored and porous borders, generating billions in illicit trade.
Visits to the right markets only serve to buttress the cynic’s position, which only goes to show that although regulation and checks may be in place, no product can actually remain effectively banned in Nigeria. But that is a topic for another day.
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Consumers warned about counterfeit clothes and scam websites
The internet has a new wave of scam websites causing misery for Irish consumers selling poorly made counterfeit goods that are claimed to be real designer labels for a cheap price. Many young people are eagerly awaiting the start of the Irish debs season so this is the catalyst for the wave of scam clothing sites. The UK European Consumer Centre has released a strong statement advising consumers to be vigilant when ordering fashionable designer clothing online.
Frequently these rogue retailers use credentials that are listed in European countries to add to the professed legitimacy of their site. However, this is often a smoke screen and the businesses were not situated in that country at all. In many cases they were outside the EU completely.
http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1028149.shtml
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Fake 99p iPhone chargers ‘putting lives at risk
Britons buying dangerous counterfeit iPhone chargers for as little as 99p are risking electrocution or burns, warns London Fire Brigade, which says it is ‘only a matter of time’ before one of them causes a fatal fire. Fake iPhone chargers on sale in the UK could cause fires, electrocutions or burns and are putting lives at risk, warns London Fire Brigade.
The brigade says that the devices have caused “a number of incidents” across the capital, including one in February where one caught fire and set alight to a house in Tottenham.
Experts dismantled and tested various counterfeit chargers which are widely available in Britain in markets and online and found that they had around half as many components inside as genuine Apple chargers.
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Rare Wine Dealer Sentenced in Counterfeiting Scheme
“The same old wine in a brand new bottle” is a phrase that aptly describes how fraudsters deceive the public in ever-changing ways. It applies perfectly to Rudy Kurniawan’s profitable and long-running counterfeiting scam—except that Kurniawan was putting new wine in old bottles.Earlier this month, a New York federal judge sentenced Kurniawan to a 10-year prison term for his elaborate counterfeiting scheme in which he mixed newer, cheaper wines together and poured them into old bottles with forged labels.When FBI agents executed a search warrant at Kurniawan’s California home in 2012, they found wine-making materials everywhere in plain sight. “Essentially, the entire house was a fake wine-making laboratory,” said Special Agent Adam Roeser, who helped investigate the case out of our New York Division.
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Police seize counterfeit goods worth £1m in North Manchester raids
Police have seized over £1 million worth of counterfeit goods – including badly-spelled designer brands.Officers raided four shops in north Manchester and found knock-offs including ‘Louis Vitton’ ‘Pacco Rabanne’, ‘Chenelle’ and ‘Jean Paul Gautier’ handbags.
Officers also recovered fake Ugg boots and sunglasses and Mulberry items.The swoops took place on Lockett Street in the Strangeways area on Wednesday.Sgt Andrew Holvey, of the North Manchester Neighbourhood policing team, said: “I would like to thank members of the community for providing us with valuable intelligence which enabled the raids. We are aware this type of crime causes a lot of harm to legitimate businesses and believe this action will be a significant hit to the people that are involved in this type of crime.
Lear More£10 million worth of fake cosmetics seized at Channel Tunnel
Border Force officers at the Channel Tunnel entrance in France have seized around 578 boxes of counterfeit cosmetic gift sets with a potential value of up to £10 million.The seizure was made in the early hours of August 28 as officers carried out checks on a Dutch-registered vehicle en route to a business park in Newcastle-under-Lyme.The Border Force team inspected the load and it soon became clear that the cosmetic sets and their packaging were of inferior quality, so the goods were seized and the investigation has been passed to Kent County Council (KCC) Trading Standards.
Paul Morgan, Director of Border Force South East and Europe said: “I would like to praise my officers for their vigilance in identifying these fakes.
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