The report published by European Commission for the year 2012 presents statistical information on the number of detentions and other customs actions over the past year(1).
The number of individual articles detained are down over 65%. Indeed 114,772,812 articles have been detained in 2001 to 39,917,445 in 2012. However, regarding instances of imports, the results have remained quite stable (91,245 detentions in 2011 to 90,473 in 2012).
This shift is due to the availability of goods online which infringe intellectual property rights. The goods arrive to Europe generally through post and couriers.
The articles come for the most part from China for CD, DVD and tobacco, Marocco for foodstuffs and Bulgaria for packaging materials.
In 90% of the cases, detained goods were destroyed either after the owner of the goods and the right holder agreed on destruction or after the right holder initiated a court action. The report says also that 8% of detentions have been released because the right owner didn’t react to a notification or because the goods were genuine.
It is important to set up a customs surveillance and seizures. Our law firm can advice and assist you to set up a monitoring of your company trademark at customs level in France, as well as in the European Union.
(1) http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/customs/customs_controls/counterfeit_piracy/statistics/2013_ipr_statistics_en.pdf