October 31, 2018

The Council says that massive violations of intellectual property rights in the trade of goods are “a serious global problem”.  According to the latest European Commission report, EU customs authorities confiscated over 31 million counterfeit products at the EU’s external border with a street value of over €580 million in 2017.

According to the latest data, international trade in counterfeit products represents up to 2.5% of world trade, or as much as EUR 338 billion.  The impact of counterfeiting is particularly high in the EU, with counterfeit and pirated products amounting up to 5% of imports, or as much as EUR 85 billion.

The Council says that it is “essential to improve framework conditions for business to innovate” and to reduce the damage to legitimate interests caused by counterfeiters taking advantage of rights holders. The fight against international organisations engaged in fraud and organised crime, often searching for easy gains and economic benefits from the trade in counterfeit and pirated goods, also requires specific attention.

Any comprehensive IPR legal framework must be combined with effective enforcement, the Council says.  Customs play a key role in enforcement: once IPR infringing goods have entered the single market, it is much more difficult to interrupt the supply chain.  “Coordinating and planning European customs activities to combat IPR infringements related to cross-border trade is paramount”, it says.

To combat these problems, the Council has adopted a new Action Plan for 2018 to 2022.  The experience gained from implementation of the 2013-2017 Action Plan highlighted the need for some adjustments.  The strategic objectives of the Action Plan are, therefore, to:

• tackle major trends in trade of IPR infringing goods;
• tackle trade of IPR infringing goods throughout the international supply chain;
• strengthen cooperation with the European Observatory on infringements of IPRs and law enforcement authorities;

A roadmap will be prepared by the Commission in co-operation with Member States to define the actions and tools to be deployed within an agreed timeframe.  The agreed roadmap will be made available to the Council in Spring 2019.

The Commission, in co-operation with Member States, will present yearly summary reports to the Council on the state of implementation of the Action Plan, on the basis of the roadmap.  A more detailed report will be prepared in the final year.  To access the new Action Plan, click here.