“Fake in Italy” branches out into toothpaste, soaps-reports
Counterfeiters of the kind who normally concentrate on ripping off luxury labels are diversifying into cheaper daily items like soaps and shampoos to lure Italian consumers cutting back on everything amid the recession, a study on Monday said. Trademark counterfeiting generated 6.9 billion euros ($9 billion) in sales in Italy in 2010, with clothing, accessories and software as best-sellers, Rome-based think-tank Censis said. “The impact of counterfeiting on the economy is huge,” Censis said in a statement, adding that it cost 1.7 billion euros in missed tax revenues for Italy’s depleted state coffers. However demand for fake goods is expected to slow down this year as the crisis eats into family savings, Censis said. With Italians struggling under the impact of a year-long recession, tax rises, falling disposable incomes and rising unemployment, consumer spending is headed for its biggest post-World War Two decline this year. Growth in sales of counterfeit goods slowed to 19 percent at the peak of the crisis in 2009 from 37 percent in 2007, Censis said. Sales rose again in 2010 as the economy recovered. Although volumes may be falling, cheaper counterfeit products are gaining traction from demand for lower-priced goods, Censis said.Cosmetics are emerging as the fastest-growing category with sales of counterfeit lipsticks and pencils growing 15 times over the past decade, Italian cosmetic association UNIPRO said.Exports of food also face competition from a booming counterfeit industry offering products ranging from fake Parmesan cheese to spaghetti.Counterfeit Italian food generated sales of 1.1 billion euros in 2010, the third-biggest sector behind clothing and software, according to Censis.”This is a global fraud that must be stopped,” agriculture and food lobby group Coldiretti said in a separate statement.The renowned “Parmigiano Reggiano” cheese remains the most-copied product worldwide, Coldiretti said, with Brazilian “parmesao” adding to the list of dubious parmesan labels.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/italy-counterfeit-idUSL5E8LME0O20121022
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Clothing sector fights surge in counterfeit products entering South Africa
A steady increase in the number of street vendors selling counterfeit clothing around the country has led to job and revenue losses for clothing manufacturers, brand licensees and formal retailers, some of whom have now hired private investigators to deal with the problem.Both popular and expensive brands, usually associated with class and high quality, are at risk of being copied or sold as “rip-offs”. During the past financial year the SA Revenue Service (Sars) made 20 000 seizures of illegal goods to the value of almost R1 billion, including more than 750 000 pieces of clothing worth R483 million. Sars said undervalued imports posed a significant risk not only to the fiscus but to local industry and job creation. Adriaan Verhagen, the managing director of Ninian & Lester, the sole licensee of US underwear brand Jockey in South Africa, said this week that counterfeits had to be eradicated as they presented a major threat to local employment. Between 2007 and 2012, Ninian & Lester lost R20 million worth of sales to counterfeits. The company said this figure represented only 5 percent of the problem. It added that this amount could pay for 1 000 machinist jobs for 12 months. Verhagen said the company’s legal cases against counterfeiters had increased to 40 as a result of research done between 2007 and 2012. He said vendors sold fake Jockey socks for R5 a pair, whereas retail stores charged R22.95 for the authentic item.
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Police crack down on designer deceit in O.C.
As part of “Operation Fashion Faux Pas” the federal agents seized more than $200,000 worth of product this week in Orange County during a series of raids that capped a six-month crackdown on local makers of faux brand-name items. Though none of the vendors raided were arrested for hawking counterfeit merchandise, evidence was turned over to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for possible criminal charges. The six-month effort in Orange County was one of the largest of its kind, and a Homeland Security Investigations official says it marks the start of a series of similar planned crackdowns on the growing crime of intellectual property theft. In fiscal 2011, federal authorities snagged $1.1 billion worth of fake goods, a 24 percent increase from the year before. The dollar figure refers to what the genuine products would have sold at retail. Overall, counterfeiting cost U.S. businesses up to $250 billion last year in lost revenue, according to the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition.”It is everywhere,” says Dan Showalter, supervisory special agent and group supervisor of Homeland Security Investigation’s fraud unit in Irvine. “Anyone can start their own counterfeit business with no overhead … The advent of technology and the Internet is driving this industry.”Counterfeiting isn’t just about money. Although handbags may not apply, many sham items pose safety and health hazards. Counterfeit batteries can blow up a child’s toy. Bogus pharmaceuticals can lead to sickness or worse. And urine is a popular product used for coloring in knockoff perfumes. Up to 80 percent of the counterfeit merchandise is manufactured in China and Hong Kong, federal authorities say. India and Pakistan are other hot spots for manufacturers and suppliers. Such items often wind up in a hot spot for fake product consumption.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/counterfeit-377983-agents-merchandise.html
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Sri Lanka raids fake ICC T20 clothing stores
Sri Lanka’s police raided a factory turning out counterfeit ICC World Twenty20 T-shirts and seized stocks of spurious merchandise. Deputy Inspector-General Anura Senanayake said they carried out the crackdown on fake World Twenty20 merchandise following a complaint from the International Cricket Council (ICC) over trade mark infringements. The ICC said local manufacturers were in the process of turning out “large quantities” of fake team shirts belonging to the 12 countries competing in the World Twenty20 tournament.
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3 individuals charged with trafficking in counterfeit goods in Florida
Three Florida men were charged in three separate indictments for trafficking in counterfeit goods. They face up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $2 million. The cases were investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Dale Borders, 38, of Orlando, is charged with trafficking in counterfeit DVDs bearing the trademarks of Beachbody LLC, Disney Enterprises Inc. and Zumba Fitness LLC. Gary T. Mannix, 59, of Daytona Beach, Fla., is charged with trafficking in counterfeit sports merchandise and National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Collegiate Athletics Association and Major League Baseball jerseys. Mohamed El Said Mohamed, 37, of Ormond Beach, Fla. According to court documents, he admitted to trafficking more than 1,000 counterfeit handbags, jewelry, watches and wallets bearing trademarks of Coach, Fendi, Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1210/121011orlando.htm
Lear MoreGovernment to warn motorists about counterfeit air bags
The Obama administration is preparing to warn car owners whose air bags have been replaced in the past three years that dangerous counterfeit bags may have been installed, according to auto industry officials who have been briefed by the government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration alerted the industry in a series of telephone briefings on Tuesday that tens of thousands of car owners may be driving vehicles with counterfeit air bags. NHTSA testing has shown some of the counterfeit bags don’t inflate or fail to inflate properly. In at least one case, a counterfeit bag fired shards of plastic and other projectiles on impact. NHTSA will ask car owners to check a government website, Safercar.gov, or call their manufacturer or local dealership to learn if their vehicle model is among those for which counterfeit air bags have been made. The agency has compiled a draft list of dozens of vehicle makes and models for which counterfeit air bags may be available. NHTSA cautions at the top of the draft that the agency “expects this list to evolve over time”. If the car is on the list and has had its air bags replaced during the past three years by a repair shop other than a new car dealership, owners will be asked to bring the vehicle into a dealership to determine whether the replaced air bags are counterfeit.
A wide variety of counterfeit auto parts has long been a well-known problem, industry officials said. But recent incidents have escalated concern by government officials. In August, federal agents confiscated nearly 1,600 counterfeit air bags and arrested a North Carolina auto mechanic. Last February, Dai Zhensong, a Chinese citizen, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court in Chattanooga, Tenn., to 37 months in prison for trafficking in counterfeit air bags. Zhensong was a part owner and manager of the international department of Guangzhou Auto Parts, which made a variety of auto parts, many of which were counterfeit, the statement said. In 2010, he traveled from China to Chattanooga to sell additional counterfeit air bags and other auto parts. The counterfeit air bags were manufactured by purchasing genuine auto air bags that were torn down and used to produce molds to manufacture the counterfeit bags. Trademark emblems were purchased through Honda, Toyota, Audi, BMW and other dealerships located in China and affixed to the counterfeit air bags. The air bags were advertised on the Guangzhou Auto Parts website and sold for approximately $50 to $70 each, far below the value of an authentic air bag.
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Cops seize fake electronic goods from Ritchie Street shops
A special team of the CB-CID’s Video Piracy Cell was formed following a complaint lodged by the Constituted Attorney of SanDisk Corporation Limited of USA, alleging that a large quantity of duplicate computer goods were illegally sold in the Ritchie Street market. The special team conducted raid and seized fake electronic equipment from shops in Ritchie Street on Wednesday. It seized fake memory cards, USB drives and other computer accessories sold in the name of a well-known US-based firm. Duplicate packaging material, hologram stickers and MRP stickers were also found. Over Rs.11 lakh worth of fake goods were seized. Three persons were also arrested.
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Fake phones and tablets seized from Ritchie St.
After a recent raid carried out by a CB-CID team at Richie Street, it was found that fraudsters had created software to program Chinese handsets to look like original handsets and tablets of Samsung. Over 300 handsets and 65 tablets worth Rs. 14 lakh were seized and six persons were arrested. The culprits had programmed the phones and tablets in a way that the Samsung display appeared when switched on. All the other applications in the phones and tablets have been replicated and in a final touch to the fraud they pasted fake logos and packed the equipment to make them look original.
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Interpol wants to join the ‘fake drugs’ battle, Indian government fights shy
The International Criminal Police Organisation, popularly known as Interpol, wants to assist the Indian government in its effort to clamp down on the alleged ‘fake drugs’ network in the country. While the France-headquartered agency wants New Delhi and India’s generic drug companies to sign up for the Interpol Global Register (IGR) to facilitate tracking the illicit drugs trail, the government is wary of any move to link intellectual property rights (IPR) issues with the scourge of counterfeiting.
Lear MoreChemists to become new drug-busters
After the failure of India’s most ambitious whistleblower policy to handsomely reward those who help seize spurious, adulterated and misbranded drugs, cosmetics and medical devices. Dr Singh has decided to rope in India’s seven lakh chemist outlets to help government check the commercial sale of fake or spurious drugs. Dr G N Singh, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is travelling to Chandigarh on Sunday to make an open plea to chemists during his address at the executive meeting of the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists an apex body of nearly 7.5 lakh members involved in wholesale and retail trade of pharmaceutical products.
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