[Index]
COMBATING COUNTERFEIT
GOODS ON INTERNATIONAL MARKETS:
UN BODY EXPLORES NEW SOLUTIONS
Geneva, 26 October 2005 - With
the rapid movement of goods in our global
economy, counterfeit and unsafe products
are arriving in ever greater quantities
on national markets and posing a major
challenge for countries worldwide. As
counterfeit goods flood markets, they
are undermining our economies, depriving
Governments of revenue from taxes, and
often endangering the health and safety
of consumers. Some of these goods can
even be life-threatening – such
as adulterated or contaminated food,
hazardous toys or falsified spare parts
for electrical goods, cars or aircraft.
Counterfeits goods, according to the
World Customs Organization, now account
for around 5-7% of international trade.
To examine how current market surveillance
activities could be expanded to provide
better consumer protection, delegates
from 42 countries met on 24 and 25 October
at the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE) during its Second
International Forum on Market Surveillance
and Consumer Protection. The 110 participants
included representatives of national
and international standards organizations,
patent offices, consumer protection agencies,
regulators, and industry.
The Forum’s purpose was to work
towards finding a consensus on how to
approach the issues of consumer safety
and protection and the fight against
fraud through a “broader concept” of
market surveillance. A draft recommendation
was circulated for comment and by June
2006, the UNECE hopes that a formal UNECE
Recommendation on Market Surveillance
can be agreed.
A second objective of the Forum was
to help public authorities from countries
in transition and developing countries
to obtain first-hand information on how
to protect human health and safety, animal
and plant life and health, as well as
the environment, without introducing
trade restrictive practices.
Counterfeiting is not only an infringement
of the intellectual property rights of
individuals and companies, it creates
a disincentive for investors and hinders
economic development. Today, profits
from counterfeit products such as CDs
and DVDs are greater than those from
heroin. With jail sentences considerably
shorter than for drugs, criminals are
finding this type of business less risky.
Some success stories
in combating this type of crime were
reported during the Forum. In Ukraine,
for instance, the authorities working
together with Procter and Gamble, successfully
detected and destroyed a lucrative illegal
market in counterfeit Procter and Gamble
products. In a survey conducted by Procter
and Gamble in Ukraine in 1999, that company
had found that a staggering 43 per cent
of the hair-care products and 23 per
cent of the laundry products using its
brand names were counterfeit.
As a result
of an intense campaign that consisted
of public confidence building and deploying
mobile testing laboratories in Ukraine
for on-the-spot testing of suspect
products, the company jointly with the
Ukrainian authorities succeeded in completely
eliminating the counterfeit products.
Among the numerous concerns expressed
during the Forum were difficulties in
controlling misleading or false language.
A representative of an Australia/New
Zealand regulatory office highlighted
the difficulty of controlling the language
of marketing; specifically when statements
about products were “true but misleading”.
The Chairman of the Working Party,
Christer Arvius, explained that the lack
of terminology and appropriate definitions
in the area of market surveillance was
also a problem. In many countries, market
surveillance focuses mainly on product
safety. In Western Europe, for instance,
the authorities concentrate on controlling
product safety: e.g. food, motor vehicles,
children’s toys. In other countries,
the focus can be more on quality standards.
The powers of the various bodies involved
in carrying out searches for fraudulent
or illegal goods also varied considerably
from one country to another. In order
for countries to adequately share information
about market surveillance practices and
results, a common vocabulary is needed
and it was agreed that this is an area
where the UNECE will undertake future
work.
The Forum was part of the 35th anniversary
meeting of the UNECE Working Party on
Regulatory Cooperation and Standardization
Policies (24-26 October 2005).
For further information, contact:
Serguei Kouzmine
UNECE Trade Development and Timber Division
Palais des Nations, office 433-1
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 (0) 22 917 27 71
Fax:
+41 (0) 22 917 04 79 /917 00 37
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.unece.org/trade
Presentations
at the Forum: http://www.unece.org/trade/ctied/wp6/other_events/fora.htm
Read about the MARS Group’s activities,
as well as related activities of the
Working Party: http://www.unece.org/trade/ctied/wp6/sectoral/mars/mars_bkgrd.htm
UK Patent Office links page: http://www.patent.gov.uk/links/index.htm
Ref: ECE/TRADE/05/P07