Role of Customs in fighting Counterfeiting

Counterfeiting and infringing goods are usually not manufactured in the same geographical area in which they are sold. Instead, the components used for manufacturing any product are sourced, produced, and assembled at different locations worldwide. Therefore it becomes vital for brands and other stakeholders to have an immediate overview of the process.?

However, counterfeiters are always on the lookout for a gap they can fill by infiltrating the supply chains with counterfeit components or products. Therefore, here comes the need for Customs to act as a shield and a perforated membrane that filters out all the incoming suspicious articles.?

Customs play an essential role in fighting counterfeits around the world by protecting and stopping the inflow of dubious products inside any particular region. Moreover, since the products manufactured worldwide travel through various transit points, it becomes the responsibility of customs authorities to identify the counterfeits before they enter and deteriorate the genuine goods market.?

Basically, customs clearance indicates a product to be of genuine quality.?

But is that the only thing that customs authorities do in fighting counterfeiting?

Customs authorities hold a more important role than merely stopping counterfeit goods on trade borders. Here are some directions in which customs authorities function and should be working to seize the spread of counterfeit items.?

1. Guards from Front Line?

Any counterfeit good which is targeted to enter a market and eventually cause reputational damages is first and foremost supposed to go through customs guarding at trade borders. Customs act as a shield that guards and protects the reputation of brands by acting as the first line of defence against the counterfeiters and related attributes of counterfeiting.?

Any international package containing infringing goods will be first identified and analysed by customs and later sent for disposal.?

2. Protecting Intellectual Property Rights

By identifying and discarding counterfeit goods, customs help brands protect their Intellectual Property within the operational geographical boundaries.?

Moreover, it is the responsibility of customs to verify and check the authenticity of the incoming goods and parcels, for they are not authentic parcels they mistakenly discard; which can eventually affect the sales of a brand and can hold themselves liable for it.

3. Collaborating with Law Enforcement

Customs authorities must hand over the dubious parcels to law enforcement bodies to further act upon locating the whereabouts of counterfeiters from the information indicated on the parcels.?

In addition to handing over the fake parcels, sometimes customs officers also participate in the enforcement actions to provide support for verifying the counterfeiters’ den through the information available on the parcels.

4. Helps in gathering data

Seizures of counterfeit parcels are the most crucial aspect of intercepting packages by customs authorities. The data collected from these seizures and suspects helps the brands analyse and quantify the number of fakes arriving from a particular provenance or a route.?

For example, in FY 2021, CBP (Customs and Border Protection) seized 280 Food and Drug Administration-prohibited COVID-19 test kits, 717,741 counterfeit face masks, and 526 Food and Drug Administration-prohibited chloroquine tablets.

The collective data gathered indicated that 16% of the seizures occurred in the express consignment environment, and 80% were discovered in incoming mail. Of which about 77% of these seizures originated in China.

Such data is beneficial for not only brands but even government organisations to keep a record of the fakes intercepted in any particular year. Ultimately, it helps quantify the rate of counterfeit goods entering a specific country or state in a specific bracket of time. In addition, it eventually helps generate reports on counterfeit growth.

Countries have started collaborating in various ways through bilateral agreements. Moreover, now brands have also understood that cooperating with customs authorities is crucial for improving the efficiency and strength in the fight against counterfeiting.