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The Tax Agency carried out 3,000 anti-piracy operations in 2017, involving more than 3.1 million counterfeit products

Fight against piracy

  • The Customs Department has issued 87 reports for crimes against intellectual and industrial property
  • Madrid is the autonomous community with the highest number of actions (1,067) and Andalusia is the one with the highest number of intervened products (2.3 million)
  • In terms of merchandise value, the most relevant group of products is jewelry (40.6% of the total), followed by clothing, footwear and accessories (20.8%) and watches (20.3%), while In number, office supplies account for 43% of the total

May 1, 2018 .- The Tax Agency, through the Department of Customs and Excise Taxes, intervened during 2017 a total of 3.1 million counterfeit products in 2,999 operations ( withholdings), as well as through 87 reports with the corresponding complaints for crimes against intellectual and industrial property.

Aware of the serious economic and social damage that the falsification business constitutes, the Tax Agency fraud control annual plan considers one of its priorities the full control of the import and sale of goods, in order to break up possible black market circuits.

To this end, the Tax Agency carries out a risk profile analysis of all foreign trade declarations that are made in national territory, taking into account the country of origin, type of product, participants and many other characteristics of the commercial operation.

Seized merchandise

Taking into account the distribution of seizures by group and number of products, last year the evolution is distorted by the intervention, in the port of Melilla, of 960,000 pens from China, which leads to the total figure seized in 2017 being This category of office products exceeds 1.3 million, 43% of the total seized. More than 354,000 body care products (11.2% of the total) and 276,000 items of clothing, footwear and accessories (8.8% of the total seized) were also seized.

From the point of view of the relevance of the actions, it is advisable, instead, to attend to the distribution based on the value of the seized merchandise; not the number of products. According to the valuation standards set by the European Commission, if it had reached the market, the merchandise seized by the AEAT in 2017 could have reached a value of up to 60 million euros.

By value of the seized products, the most relevant group is jewelry, which has an estimated value of more than 24 million euros (40.6% of the total); The counterfeit watches seized have a value of just over 12 million euros (20.3%); clothing, almost 6 million euros (9.8%) and sports shoes more than 4 million (7.4%).

Actions by geographical areas

Adding retentions and reports, of the total of 3,086 actions, the 1,067 that were carried out in Madrid stand out (36% of the total). It is followed, by number of performances, by the Canary Islands with 723 (23%), Andalusia with 604 (19%) and Catalonia with 372 (12%). On the other hand, by volume of products, the Delegation of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla (2.3 million, 73% of the total) and the Valencian Community (500,000, 16%) stand out, while the latter is the first in product value seized (24.8 million, 41% of the total) and Andalusia, the second (17.7 million, 29% of the total seized).

False merchandise by way of entry and origin

Of all the products seized, just over 92% were seized at ports and almost 6% at airports. On the other hand, by number of interventions, more than 88% affected commercial shipments by air and just over 10% affected shipments by sea.

Of all the interventions, just over 12% focused on travelers' luggage (both by air and sea). In turn, last year 2017, 98% of seized counterfeit products came from the Asian continent.

Seizure results by product groups
2016 2017
Units Valuation (in millions of euros) Units % / Total Valuation (in millions of euros) % / Total
Clothes, footwear and accessories 451,632 21.9 360,375 11.4% 12.5 20.8%
Perfumes and cosmetics 119,281 2.5 355,191 11.2% 0.5 0.8%
Electronic games and toys 111,341 1.1 60,164 1.9% 0.7 1.2%
Electronic equipment and components 177,090 1.6 47,799 1.5% 2.4 3.9%
Jewellery 8,237 3.6 21,136 0.7% 24.4 40.6%
Watches 10,058 10.4 11,325 0.4% 12.2 20.3%
Bags, boxes and purses 19,142 3.2 3,354 0.1% 1.9 3.2%
Glasses (including sunglasses) 258,335 21.2 550 0.0% 0.1 0.1%
Others (including office supplies) 1,383,544 12.2 2,301,690 72.8% 5.6 9.2%
Total 2,538,660 77.8 3,161,584 100.0% 60.2 100.0%

Note: Counterfeit product data does not include tobacco seizures