At the Port of Louisville, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized a shipment recently containing 200 counterfeit watches. Had these watches been genuine, the shipment would have had a combined manufacturer’s suggested retail price of over $28 million.
The shipment from Hong Kong was headed for Illinois when officers pulled the parcel for inspection. The examination revealed 200 watches bearing suspected Audemars Piguet trademarks. The items were deemed to be inauthentic by CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise, the agency’s trade experts, and were seized for bearing counterfeit versions of registered and recorded trademarks.
“Counterfeit goods are poor quality products costing U.S. businesses billions of dollars a year while robbing our country of jobs and tax revenues,” said Louisville’s Port Director, Philip Onken. “Officers are trained to identify illicit shipments and work diligently for American consumers by stopping the flow of unlawful trade.”
Just weeks ago, Louisville officers seized a shipment containing 375 counterfeit Audemars Piguet watches with a MSRP exceeding $54 million.
Illegitimate sales are some of the most profitable transnational crimes. Counterfeiters sell inauthentic versions of popular products in response to trends, often through online sources, which adversely impacts legitimate U.S. businesses. These items, including fake medications, perfumes, and cosmetics, children’s toys and costumes, fashion, jewelry, and luxury products, and unsafe electronics and automative parts, can pose serious health and safety risks to American consumers as they are often made with substandard or harmful materials.
CBP reminds consumers to shop from reputable online sources. E-Commerce sales have contributed to large volumes of low-value, small packages being imported into the U.S. Many counterfeit seizures occur in the international mail and express environments, which are channels through which small, e-commerce packages destined for the U.S. travel. Many of these shipments contain counterfeit goods that pose the same health, safety, and economic security risks as large, containerized shipments.
CBP protects the intellectual property rights of American businesses through an aggressive Intellectual Property Rights enforcement program, safeguarding them from unfair competition and use for malicious intent while upholding American innovation and ingenuity.
To learn more about what CBP is doing every day to protect Americans from counterfeit goods, and more about the Truth Behind Counterfeits public awareness campaign, click here.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection