Bulgaria is the fourth major source of fake goods confiscated in the EU after China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a report of the European Commission.

China retains its role as the major source of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringing goods, with a share of 64.5% and detained articles worth nearly EUR 1 B.

At the same time, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China was the source of 7.8% of the IPR infringing goods and was the top source of fake CD/DVDs.

Next in the ranking were the UAE and Bulgaria.

Of the other EU Member States, Greece was the source of 2% of the fake goods.

Hong Kong was also the main source of fake "other tobacco products such as electronic cigarettes and their liquid fillings," while Morocco was the main source of IPR infringing foodstuffs.

The UAE was the source of 8.37% of the confiscated goods.

Algirdas Semeta, Commissioner for Taxation, Customs, Anti-fraud and Audit said: "Customs is the EU's first line of defence against fake products which threaten the safety of our citizens and undermine legal businesses. Today's report shows the intensity and importance of the work being done by Customs in this field. I will continue to push for even greater protection of intellectual property rights in Europe, through our work with international partners, the industry and Member States."

According to statistics published by the EC on August 5, almost 90 000 detention cases were registered by Customs in 2012.

The high number of detentions was caused by the high number of small parcels in express and postal traffic, most probably as a result of internet sales.

In comparison to 2011, the number of goods detained decreased from 115 million in 2011 to 40 million in 2012.

However, the number of cases remained stable above 90.000 and the domestic retail value of the goods remained at nearly EUR 1 B.

In terms of numbers of detained articles, the top 3 categories were cigarettes (30.86%); other goods such as bottles, lamps, glue, batteries and washing powder (11.76%); and packaging materials (9.84%).

In over 90 % of the detentions, the goods were either destroyed or a court case was initiated to determine the infringement. In 8,2 % of the cases, the goods were released because they appeared to be non-infringing original goods or no action was undertaken by the right-holder after receiving the notification by the customs authorities.

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