In terms of the means of transport of these products, the largest number of seizure cases in 2021 continued to involve common consumer products transported by mail and courier services.
The most common categories of captives imitation products in terms of their number throughout EU were, in 2021, packaging materials, cigarettes, labels, cards and stickers, clothing and toys while, in terms of the estimated value of the items, first in the ranking was clothing, followed by wristwatches , audio/video equipment, textiles and non-athletic footwear.
According to the study of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), published today on its website, the annual number of seizures of goods carried out by customs authorities at EU borders because they believed they infringed an intellectual property (IP) right increased slightly in 2021 compared to the previous year ( from around 70,000 in 2020 to around 75,000 in 2021).
The number of proceedings initiated also increased from approximately 102,000 in 2020 to approximately 124,000 in 2021 while a stronger development is observed in the number of objects seized (from approximately 27 million in 2020 to approximately 42 million in 2021), surpassing even the levels recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the estimated value of the seized items increased only modestly (from around €778 million to around €806 million).
The small increase in the estimated value of the restricted goods in 2021 is due to the change in the composition of the “basket” of the restricted products, which included cheaper items compared to the previous year, and, on the other hand, to the decrease in the estimated unit price of certain categories of restricted products (which applied to both the majority of items and the more expensive items).
This, it is noted, occurred despite a huge increase in the number of items seized this year, which was the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All of these increases were reported despite the lack of reporting of engagements carried out at the Greek border.
In terms of the number of procedures, the product sub-categories that appeared most often were general consumer products (clothing and footwear, including sports and non-athletic footwear) and luxury products (bags, wallets, perfumes, cosmetics and wristwatches).
Regarding the number of items seized, the first five positions were occupied by the subcategories in which the items per piece are usually smaller in size and value, and their transportation is mainly carried out in large container loads (packaging materials, other goods, mobile phone parts phones, toys and other body care items).
Regarding the estimated value of the pledged products, it is reported that luxury products, whose corresponding original product had a high unit domestic retail price (mainly due to the relevant brand names), occupied the first positions by a margin, such as wristwatches, clothing, bags, wallets and jewelry.
Among them is one unusual product, mobile phone accessories, due to the large number of confiscated items in this product category.
In terms of the origin of IPR infringing goods entering the EU, their volumes show that China, Turkey and Hong Kong consistently hold the lead as countries of origin with China being the dominant country of origin for most product categories.
In addition, in the first place of the detected products originating in China that were seized because they violated IP rights are also packaging materials and among the items originating in Turkey, clothing items are in the first place while the identified items that were seized originated in Hong Kong (China), are mostly labels, cards and stickers.
In terms of the means of transport of these products, the largest number of seizure cases in 2021 continued to involve common consumer products transported by mail and courier services.
However, in recent years, cases of seizure of products transported by mail have been continuously decreasing, while cases of seizure of products transported by courier services have increased.
In terms of the number of counterfeit products, items transported by sea and road continue to account for the majority of all seized items, while there is an increase in air and postal transport as well as courier services.
Finally, from the commitments made, it follows that trademarks (whether it is a European Union trademark or a national and/or international trademark) are still, by far, the rights (IPR) most frequently violated.
However, the study highlights that products reported to have been seized at EU borders due to infringement of IP rights still represent for several years only a fraction of the counterfeit and pirated products estimated to have entered the EU market.
Commitments within the framework of the EU internal market
The trend of seizing IPR-infringing goods in the EU internal market strengthened in 2021 compared to the previous year.
According to relevant data submitted by police, customs and market surveillance authorities, the number of seized IPR infringing goods was almost 7 million more than in 2020 (46 million), marking an annual increase of 16%.
There was an increase despite the fact that some internal market law enforcement authorities that had provided data for 2020 did not provide for 2021, as the number of commitments made in 2020 was minimal.
Despite this increase in the number of seized items, their estimated value (approximately EUR 1253 million) decreased by EUR 46 million, i.e. by 3.5% year-on-year, due to the change in the composition of the sub-categories of the “basket” of of bound products, which included cheaper items.
In terms of number of pledged items and estimated value, the six Member States with the highest reported pledges accounted for more than 95% of all pledges made in the internal market in 2021.
In terms of the number of restricted items, Italy is far ahead, with almost 62% in terms of the number of restricted items and 63% in terms of estimated value.
France, the Netherlands, Spain and Hungary are also in the top six for both the number of seized items and their estimated value, while Portugal and Greece round out the top six for both the number of seized items as well as the estimated value respectively.
The product sub-categories in the top five positions are, “Other goods” in first place in terms of the number of items bound within its internal market, followed by cigarettes and labels, cards and stickers, articles clothing and, to a lesser extent, audio/video devices.
In terms of their estimated value, the four sub-categories of a group (textiles, clothing, audio/video devices and non-sports shoes) share the first place presenting similar overall rates, followed by cigarettes.
Finally, trade marks are the most infringed type of IPR in the framework of commitments made in the EU internal market (over 93 % of the pledged items).
Other infringed IPRs in the internal market include intellectual property rights (around 6% of restricted items) and designs (around 0.7%).
Total figures for commitments made in 2021
The quantities of counterfeit items seized and not placed on the EU market amounted to almost 86 million items in 2021.
This shows that the number of reported items that were seized and not released increased by almost 31% compared to 2020 (66 million items). Almost 62% of the items were bound in the internal market and the rest at EU borders.
The estimated value of counterfeit items seized in the EU exceeded €1.9 billion. This value decreased by almost 3% compared to the previous year, despite an increase in the number of items seized.
This contradiction is in line with the general picture of counterfeit goods commitments in the internal market, as explained earlier.
In 2021, around 65% of the total value of the seized items was accounted for in national market commitments, with the remainder in commitments at EU borders. These figures are consistent with those in 2020.
The 10 Member States with the largest number of reported pledges accounted for around 97% of the quantities and over 93% of the estimated value of the items pledged.
Italy recorded the highest number of commitments for individual items, making 39% of the total number of commitments and over 41% of commitments based on estimated value.
Overall, the five most common sub-categories of restricted products in terms of number across the EU were packaging materials, cigarettes, labels, cards and stickers, clothing and toys. These five subcategories accounted for more than 53% of the products recorded.
In terms of estimated item value, the top product subcategories identified were apparel, followed by wristwatches, audio/video equipment, textiles, and non-athletic footwear.
These five subcategories represent nearly 54% of the estimated value of commitments reported in 2021.
RES-EMP
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