VKE: product and brand piracy: situation unchanged

According to the German Cosmetics Association (VKE), the statistics on seizures of pirated goods in 2011, as currently presented by German customs, reveal no relaxation of the situation. The VKE reported that the number of border seizure cases was virtually unchanged compared to 2010. It was particularly problematic that counterfeiters were increasingly focusing on children, and that there was an increase of shipping in small quantities. Especially in the field of cosmetics, this made spectacular seizures, such as large discoveries in containers, increasingly difficult and countless small shipments had to be investigated individually.

Christian Koehler, chief executive of the brand association, explains: "Unfortunately, last years trend of counterfeit goods increasingly being shipped in small quantities has confirmed itself; these goods are mostly attributed to internet transactions. This makes prosecution by customs and rights holders more and more difficult. We find the dramatic increase in discovered counterfeits in the area of toys and electronic toys particularly concerning. Compared to 2010, the increase has been 25 percent. Criminals do not even refrain from the target group of children with their activities. Globally, plagiarism causes annual losses of 250 billion US dollars. How dramatic the number of undetected cases of plagiarism in Germany must be becomes clear when one puts the worldwide number of cases into relation with the economic output of Germany and the volume of intercepted counterfeits at a value of 83 million euros. Then, the intercepted cases of plagiarism are merely the tip of the iceberg."

He adds: "The brand association therefore continues to champion the tightening of criminal law and the training of judges in order to create awareness for these crimes. In addition, there is a need for a new legal basis for the responsibility of Internet sales platforms, which are often beneficiaries of these criminal acts.