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SHORT REPORT

Conference The Knowledge Building Conference on Counterfeit Household Goods and Automotive Parts co-hosted by the OHIM and EUROPOL, and supported by US Customs and Immigration (ICE) and the Commission, brought together many experts from Industry and Enforcement from across Europe and the US, at the OHIM in Alicante. The aim of the event was to build understanding in two issues that have grown in gravity in recent years, and to develop closer collaboration with both public and private sector colleagues. Every year, EUROPOL produces an EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA), which is the product of a systematic analysis of law enforcement information on criminal activities affecting the EU, and assists strategic decision makers to prioritise their work. Key areas have been identified in which knowledge and training needs to be developed, in relation to counterfeiting and organised crime. Conference Report In the past, counterfeit car parts mainly consisted of window wipers, mud flaps and interior accessories. However, a rapidly increasing trend in the availability of counterfeit brake pads, brake shoes, airbags, tyres, suspension components and even systems testing units has been detected.

Fake airbags and substandard car parts pose a serious threat to lives

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Awareness and Knowledge Building Conference on

Counterfeit Household Products and Fake Automotive Parts

In April 2013, DG Enterprise reported that fake automotive parts cost suppliers between EURO five and ten billion every year, exposing drivers to fatal risks. The situation has become even more complicated due to the fact that consumers now buy directly from the counterfeiters, and via payment platforms on the Internet, which allows the globalisation of illegal activities and provides anonymity to the individuals involved. As a result, criminals are able to send items almost undetected, in small packages, through the express mail services and other freight providers. These companies are used by counterfeiters in the trade and transportation of counterfeit, making detection and enforcement extremely difficult. Over the past three years and in the EU alone, Customs have reported that almost 21 million fake household articles have been detained. The increasing detection of these dangerous products, including electronic appliances, batteries, cabling, toys and toiletries, underlines the risk to families, because consumers are deceived into buying fake and substandard products, and using them in their homes.

Dangers posed by counterfeit household objects including batteries and substandard cabling

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Findings show that counterfeiters will copy anything in order to make money, and they do not care who they harm in the process. Customers unknowingly buy substandard, counterfeit household and automotive parts, believing the fake labels on them are genuine and show assured quality. The conference highlighted that counterfeit products exist today in the primary sector and legal supply chain throughout the world. EUROPOL´s IP Crime Unit has detected a significant rise in potentially harmful products, including foods that have been sprayed with fake pesticides, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, mobile phones, batteries and defective power tools.

Counterfeits look very similar to genuine brands

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Awareness and Knowledge Building Conference on

Counterfeit Household Products and Fake Automotive Parts

ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) stated that the most worrying problem they face today, is that consumers do not realise they are buying illegitimate products, including counterfeit life-saving medicines and vital car parts, via the Internet. ICE targets the global supply chain in order to stop the trade of counterfeit products at source. They also work with freight companies and payment platforms. Private stakeholder presentations illustrated the increasingly sophisticated methods used by counterfeiting networks in order to ensure the successful trade and shipment of counterfeit goods, using intricate rebranding methods and fake documentation (at point of sale and after transit), small consignment packages and concealed payment methods. There are huge profits made by networks of criminals through the large scale production of counterfeit goods. In contrast, the sanctions, when caught, are, according to private stakeholders, not sufficiently dissuasive . The conference also consolidated earlier findings that counterfeiting has innate links with serious organised crime across the globe, and underlined the urgent need for the private sector to work alongside Enforcement in order to achieve convictions.

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The private sector underlined the logistical difficulties faced by prosecutors in gathering information and in proving the existence of counterfeit. They urged a harmonised system of providing representatives samples across the EU. They also stated the benefits of destroying seized counterfeit goods rather than risking their recirculation.

Seized counterfeit goods container showing links to serious organised crime

Enforcement agencies underlined the worrying rise in detections of counterfeit and substandard products procured by governments across the globe, intended for military use.

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Awareness and Knowledge Building Conference on

Counterfeit Household Products and Fake Automotive Parts

Enforcement and Future Work The Observatory underlined the enforcement authorities´ requirement for comprehensive product details, in order to be able to protect them and the Public, effectively. A strategic report on the conference and findings has been drawn up and will be circulated to enforcement authorities in Member States in order to help pinpoint future action. The Observatory and EUROPOL presented their interoperable databases, which will support the work of Enforcement across the EU and beyond. EUROPOL and ICE´s multidisciplinary and interagency approaches have resulted in successful operations and convictions against organised crime groups trading in counterfeit goods. Bodies of work are currently being carried out by EU Enforcement with Third Countries, to stop the export of counterfeit goods, but participants at the conference also highlighted the need to address the problem of the transit of counterfeit goods across the EU, and urged a change in legislation.

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The conference concluded by addressing the need to raise public awareness about substandard counterfeit goods, as well as the benefits for the Public, through the protection of IP.

Counterfeit aerosols can cause serious harm and death

The event offered an open opportunity for networking and participants agreed that the private sector and enforcement authorities must work together to create a web of knowledge, in order to defeat agile infringement networks across the globe.

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