“China continued to be the main source country from where goods suspected of infringing on IPR entered to the EU,” the report said, noting China was the country of source for 73% of articles seized in 2011.
In 2011, EU Customs detained almost 115 million products suspected of violating intellectual property rights, compared to 103 million in 2010, an increase of 15%. The value of the intercepted goods represented nearly €1.3 billion (US$1.67 billion) compared to €1.1 billion in 2010, according to the Commission’s annual report on customs actions to enforce IPR. Medicines accounted for the largest individual category of goods stopped by customs, a total of 24% of all stopped goods, followed by packaging material (21%) and cigarettes (18%).
Products for daily use and products that could be potentially dangerous to the health and safety of consumers accounted for a total of 28.6% of the total amount of detained articles, compared to 14.5% in 2010. The increase in number of detained postal packages continued in 2011, with 36% of the detentions concerning medicines.
The EU said that in certain product categories, other countries were the source of most infringing goods: Hong Kong for mobile phones and accessories, Syria for recorded CDs and DVDs, Thailand for non-alcoholic beverages, Panama for alcoholic beverages and Turkey for foodstuffs.
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