€1.3bn of counterfeit goods seized across EU

Counterfeit goods worth €1.3bn were seized at EU borders last year, with Ireland having the biggest increase in the number of seizures last year.

Fake medicines — that are often life threatening — top the list of counterfeits followed by packaging materials including tags, and cigarettes.

Apart from medicines that can contain too much or none of the active ingredient, the number of everyday products that pose dangers to health and safety more than doubled.

They included seemingly innocuous goods like hair dryers and straighteners, that can burst into flames or melt when in use.

They come mainly from China, but other products originate from places not necessarily associated with them, such as food from Turkey, alcohol from Panama and soft drinks from Thailand.

India is a big source of the increasingly worrying levels of fake medicines. The internet has given many of these back-street pharmaceutical manufacturers a shop window that looks good, and their preferred transport mode is the post.

In total, there were 4,165 seizures in Ireland last year involving a total of 146,472 products. The biggest number of seizures was in Britain at almost 33,000 involving more than 4.5 million articles.

While more than 115m products suspected of breaching intellectual property rights were discovered and confiscated, this is estimated to be just the tip of the iceberg.

The OECD reckons the market is worth at least €200bn while other authorities say it has grown to three times this. They believe counterfeits account for up to 7% of trade worldwide and is a huge loss to government income where they often evade tax and cost jobs.

This increases pressure on customs officials and on the European Union to step up their efforts to put the counterfeiters out of business. The EU is working with China to regulate their side of the business, and more powers are being weighed for the authorities.

Taxation, customs and anti-fraud commissioner, Algridas Semeta, said he has plans that would allow customs to seize goods that are even just suspected of not being the real thing, and destroying them on the spot.

“Customs is the EU’s first line of defence against fake products which threaten the safety of our citizens and undermine legal businesses.

“I will continue to push for even greater protection of intellectual property rights in Europe, through out work with international partners, the industry and member states.”