U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stationed in Louisville seized 1,622 pieces of counterfeit designer jewelry in a single express consignment shipment. This shipment would have had a combined Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of over $14.1 million, had the goods been genuine.
The shipment, which arrived from Hong Kong and was headed to Chicago, contained 1,227 bracelets and 395 necklaces which appeared identical to well-known luxury jewelry brands, specifically: Cartier, Tiffany, and Van Cleef and Arpels trademarks. Although the pieces were almost exact replicas of their famous brands’ designs, CBP officers suspected the jewelry pieces to be counterfeit and detained them for further review.
CBP officers submitted documentation and photographs to CBP’s trade experts at the Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center of Excellence and Expertise for analysis. CBP’s trade experts worked with the trademark holders and verified that the products were in fact not authentic and as such were subject to seizure pursuant to CBP’s statutory and regulatory authorities.
“Our primary concerns for situations like these are consumer safety and trademark protection,” said Louisville Port Director Phil Onken. “Customs and Border Protection will continue to work closely with our trade and consumer safety partners to identify and seize counterfeit and trademark infringing merchandise, especially those products that pose a potential harm to American consumers. Counterfeits like these defraud the user and are frequently inferior. They do not meet the quality standards of the real item.”
U.S. consumers spend more than $100 billion every year on intellectual property rights (IPR) infringing goods, falling victim to approximately 20% of the counterfeits that are illegally sold worldwide. CBP launched a Truth Behind Counterfeits educational campaign to raise consumer awareness about the consequences and dangers that can be associated with the purchase of counterfeit and pirated goods.