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 operations (1,067) and Andalusia is the one with the largest number of products seized (2.3 million).
• In terms of merchandise value, the most relevant product group is jewelry (40.6% of the total), followed by clothing, footwear and accessories (20.8%) and watches (20.3%), while, in terms of number, office supplies account for 43% of the total.

May 1, 2018 .- The Tax Agency, through the Department of Customs and Excise, intervened during 2017 a total of 3.1 million counterfeit products in 2,999 operations (retentions), 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 do this, the Tax Agency carries out a risk profile analysis of all foreign trade declarations made in national territory, taking into account the country of origin, type of product, parties involved and many other characteristics of the commercial operation.

Seized merchandise

Considering the distribution of seizures by group and number of products, last year's evolution was distorted by the seizure, in the port of Melilla, of 960,000 pens from China, which led to the total number seized in 2017 in this category of office products exceeding 1.3 million, 43% of the total seized. More than 354,000 personal hygiene 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 appropriate, however, to consider the distribution based on the value of the seized goods; not the number of products. According to the valuation rules set by the European Commission, if the goods seized by the AEAT in 2017 had reached the market, they could have been worth up to 60 million euros.

In terms of the value of the seized products, the most important group is jewellery, which has an estimated value of more than 24 million euros (40.6% of the total); The counterfeit watches seized are worth 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 area

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

Counterfeit merchandise by route of entry and origin

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

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

Seizure results by product group
	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 goods data does not include tobacco seizures