On April 11, 2016, Federal Finance Minister Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble presented the annual administrative report of the German customs authority in Berlin. According to the report, German customs officials confiscated more than 4 million illegal and counterfeit products in some 23,000 border enforcement actions. The shocking quantity of incidents from the previous year – over 45,000 (cf. our German-language report) – was nearly halved, but the value of the confiscated items remained constantly high at 133 million euro.
The online trade with illegal and counterfeit pharmaceuticals caused particular concerns among German customs authorities. Although the 150,000 confiscated products were only slightly more numerous than in previous years (2014: approx. 120,000), the confiscated packages contained a significantly greater number of counterfeited pharmaceuticals. The number of confiscated pharmaceutical tablets, for example, increased to 3.9 million, nearly four times the number in 2014. The investigations into pharmaceutical counterfeiting increasingly targeted larger criminal networks instead of individual offenders. The customs authority took action against a total of 4,100 alleged pharmaceutical counterfeiters in 2015, some 1,100 more than in the previous year.
“We need a robust solution to master this problem. This cannot function without help from the providers of internet services, which often profit from such sales offers. They are called upon to cooperate in reducing offers of counterfeit goods,” declared Volker Bartels, Chairman of the Board at the German Anti-Counterfeiting Association (APM).
Altogether, the number of confiscations is said to have only represented the tip of the iceberg, as no more than a small proportion of all goods shipments can be inspected. The estimated number of unknown cases is accordingly regarded as much higher. “Particularly the small shipments from online shops with one or two counterfeit items continue to increase,” explained Bartels.
As in previous years, the majority of all counterfeits confiscated in Germany had their origin in Asia. China led the list with nearly 54%, followed by Hong Kong with nearly 23%.
