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CHRISTMAS IS THE busiest time of the year for traders – legitimate or otherwise.
According to research by the European Union intellectual property office, around €885 million is directly lost in annual sales as a result of counterfeiting in Ireland, which translates to over 3,500 lost jobs in the retail sector.
Last year Revenue customs officials collected more than 138,000 counterfeit items worth about €5.45 million. Based on anecdotal evidence, they reckon they’ll see similar volumes in 2016.
Every season, there is a noticeable influx of fake clothing, jewellery, electronics and other items passing through Irish ports and delivery depots in the build-up to Christmas. When consumers’ appetites for spending are high, so is the appetite for knock-offs.
“When you have confidence in the real economy, you’ll also have confidence in the black economy. It’s just the way it works,” said Mark Newman, a manager at Revenue’s prohibitions and restrictions unit.
For Newman and his colleagues, there are a number of telltale signs that set the forgeries apart from the real things.
“We’re really looking at geographic locations in terms of where the goods are coming from,” he told Fora. “Certain types of apparel, we would expect to be coming from certain parts of the world. If we don’t see that, it certainly raises awareness for us.”
IPR infringements
When it comes to protecting intellectual property rights (IPR), brands are invited to supply customs with information on anything they wish to protect – logo, patents, designs.
That data is stored on a central European database that customs officials in all 28 EU member states consult when they suspect IPR infringements.
“If a particular company is looking to protect its rights and products, and they lodge an application in Germany, we will have access to that application,” Newman explained.
As well as providing intelligence, it’s common for a company to have a solicitor on call to handle IPR breaches.
When a suspicious item is stopped, Revenue informs the copyright holder and supplies them with photographs of the goods. It is up to the firm itself to decide whether to proceed with further action.
However in his 16 years working for the tax office, Newman has never come across a company that followed through with a prosecution. Most of them simply request that the goods are destroyed.
One of the reasons firms tend to avoid the legal route – apart from the obvious costs and hassle of going through the courts – is because the technology used by counterfeiters has become increasingly sophisticated.
“It’s difficult for the rights holder to determine as to whether or not their brands are being impeached,” Newman said. “We have to be extremely forensic in terms of the information that we provide to them regarding various serial numbers, batch numbers, expiry dates, things like that.”
The naked eye would have a hard time telling dodgy items from the real deal.
What’s hot, what’s not
As well as looking for the usual suspects – fake clothing, jewellery and cosmetics – market researchers furnish Revenue with a ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ list every Christmas so they can hone in on potentially suspect products.
Last year, hoverboards were the ‘in’ thing. Newman expects them to be big this year too.
As well as traditional goods and holiday fads, Revenue has noticed growth in other areas of counterfeiting.
One of the most alarming products Newman has come across in recent months was a set of knock-off life jackets for children.
“The jackets actually absorbed water as opposed to repelling it – that’s the reality of what we deal with in the counterfeit industry,” he said.
Revenue provides plenty of information to protect consumers around the Christmas period. Business owners are asked to supply intelligence too if they come across something suspicious.
Newman said that Revenue also looks at the wider issues around counterfeit goods – for example, it is likely many fakes are supplied to unregistered traders who also don’t pay taxes.
“It would be fair to say that large brands are being counterfeited and the public may be of the opinion that they’re making a lot of money and can suffer these losses,” he said.
“But we have to bear in mind that a lot of small and medium enterprises, in all parts of the country, will stock reputable, well-known brands.
“If you have a local guy going around in a van selling knocked off jeans, T-shirts, hoodies, aftershave, whatever the case may be, it’s going to have a devastating effect on small businesses.”
If businesses or members of the public have any information on the smuggling or sale of counterfeit goods, they can contact Revenue on free phone 1800 295 295. To report IPR breaches, email rcpr@revenue.ie.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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One of the most heinous crimes committed by the Provisional IRA, the McConville family deserves justice and to know the truth.
@Stephen Kearon:
And there were many.
@Stephen Kearon: WTF are you on about? This is about the complete let down of the family by the British social services and you are banging on about the Provos. Did you even read the article before you started mashing the keyboard with your usual one-sided rants? Maybe your lack of research and actually informing yourself of the issues at hand is why you failed dismally in the elections.
@CBD Suppliers: if the provisionals hadn’t killed her, then her children wouldn’t have been in a position to be let down by the northern Irish public services
@CBD Suppliers: so you’re saying the IRA didn’t cause the problem by abducting and murdering the mother of a young family?
@Conoroconnor: I never saod anything of the sort. The article is about the let down of the family by the social services but hey if you want to go off on a tangent then be my guest. Lets ignore the call for an inquiry by Michael McConville becuase that doesn’t matter.
@Disco Inferno: Yeah we all know what happened to her but what has that to do with the social services letting down the family. Did you even read the article?
@CBD Suppliers: you’re speaking as if the two situations aren’t intrinsically linked. Yes everybody involved has let down the family but none moreso than the IRA who abducted and murdered thus bans mother and the IRA leader who gave the order. He’s not admitting anything either.
@Conoroconnor: **this mans mother
@Conoroconnor: Everyone knows about the Provos role in her murder, that’s a given however all anyone here seems to be interested is in her murder and not the dereliction of the family by the social services which is what the article is about. Do you not see the irony that apart from myself, everyone else is more preoccupied with the PIRA than this mans call for an inquiry into the social services, the RUC and the Church? Other commentators are doing exactly what the British authorities did to his family over the years and that is ignoring the families plight while scoring cheap political points.
@CBD Suppliers: no, all I see is your deflection. I’d be pretty sure you weren’t too bothered when the family were ignored by SinnFein IRA when they were trying to find out what happened to their mother. The wrongs perpetrated against this family in the aftermath and subsequent years by social services etc are only in the halfpenny placed compared what the terrorists did.
@Conoroconnor: Deflection? Listen the only one deflecting here seems to be you and a few other commentators. I have twice acknowledged that the PIRA was responsible for her murder. You, on the other hand, have completely ignored what the article is about and instead has concentrated solely on the PIRA involvement. The funny thing is that you don’t even seem to realise it.
If you want to accuse someone of deflection than maybe you should look at what you are writing.Not only that but twice you have tried to put words into my mouth or insinuated that I wasn’t “too bothered when the family were ignored by SinnFein IRA ” I’m well capable of forming my own opinions and I don’t need any help from you. If you couldn’t give a monkeys about what the article is about and just want to push some sort of other agenda then that’s up to you. Ignore the families call for an inquiry all you want and continue with your own deflections if that’s what rocks your boat but to be honest, to accuse someone of deflection while engaging in it yourself just makes you look like a hypocrite.
@Stephen Kearon: The most heinous crime carried out during the troubles was the mass murder of children and adults alike (The Dublin Monaghan Bombing). It was the single largest loss of live during the troubles. Your party refused to investigate it. Some of the actors involved, through remorse, offered their testimony and YOUR party have refused to this day to investigate it. You need to get a grip.
@Stephen Kearon: your a disgrace to FF
Her only crime was to comfort a dying soldier
Her murderers had to concoct a story about her being an informant to try and justify their disgusting act.
@The Great Unwashed: and the one who likely ordered the murder is still too cowardly to admit his membership of the Provos, let alone the numerous war crimes he was responsible for
@The Great Unwashed: on the Boston tapes that were published after his death, Brendan Hughes said that she was an informer. It was so wrong what happened to her but I think brendan Hughes would have better knowledge on the situation than you
@@at: that is not true. She was not an informed. Also to allow for discussion here if she was an informed why was her body not given to her family and her family not intimidated. To say this woman is an informer is a scandalous disgraceful comment. How dare you.
@Mjhint: you seem to have great difficulty with the English language
I never says she was an informer. I said that ‘brendan Hughes’ says she was an informer
You silly moron
@@at:
Brendan Hughes said she admitted to being an informer. He didn’t say how much they had to torture her before she made her ‘confession’.
There is zero evidence that she was ever an informer.
@@at: I’d say your cordial manner does wonders for traffic to your website.
@The Great Unwashed: BS . Brendan Hughes said there was a transmitter found in her flat. You never listened to the tapes did ya, you are just spoofing now
@Clifford Brennan: when I see someone telling lies I call them out. Simple as that
Some people on here would sell their granny for a few bob, not me kiddo
@@at: who found the transmitter in the flat ,was it the provos
@The Great Unwashed: if you believe that, you will belive anything, she was warned before what would happen if she kept it up.
@Stephen Kearon: fighting for Irish freedom, maybe start at the genocide of the Irish nation and come back when you have a brain.
@The Great Unwashed: was warned twice
@Mjhint: she was
It is sad to thinks they are no more forward in this investigation 2019, than they were when their poor mother was murdered in 1972.
@Paul Maguire: I know. Last week our Garda commissioner who was previously deputy leader of the PSNI in the North refused an application by families associated with the Paedophile ring during the same period in the North. The FG and FF members of the Dail apparently have nothing to say on the matter. We are still waiting on the media to publish articles on this injustice.
Maybe if she cared more about her children, she was on her second warning but didn’t seem to care
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