Hypercube Posted July 26, 2002 Share Posted July 26, 2002 Nokia mobile phones and Nintendo game consoles were the runaway favorites of smugglers caught bringing fake goods into the European Union in 2001, figures released by the EU showed on Friday. Customs officers in the 15 EU member states seized about 530,000 counterfeit Nokia products in 2001, or 52 percent of electrical items intercepted. The haul was more than five times the number carrying the brand of Nokia's rivals Ericsson, Siemens and Motorola Inc.. Fake Nintendo products made up 48 percent of all toys and games seized, or about 750,000 items. No breakdown of the category was available, but an EU official said it included games consoles. Neither Microsoft Corp. nor Sony Corp., Nintendo's big rivals in the games console market, were listed as having significant numbers of imitations in the same category. The EU's Director of Customs Policy, Alexander Wiedow, said the counterfeiters' choice of brand was motivated by profit alone. "They are looking at what has the best profit margin and what is easiest to sell," he said. Having set up factories to produce the goods on a massive scale, fakers can sell them "everywhere and nowhere," from tiny kiosks to large supermarkets, he said. "If someone manages to enter the commercial distribution chain, he can sell the products wherever he wants." More than a third of the total haul was captured by Dutch customs, with Thailand and China the most common sources. MONEY LAUNDERING But Wiedow said the goods often took a roundabout route to hide their origin. The seemingly clean profits gave smugglers an opportunity to get involved in money laundering. "Often they have close links with narcotics, stealing cars and even terrorism. And so the channels for distribution of counterfeit goods are complex," he said. Asked about the terrorism connection, Wiedow said a consignment of fake Vaseline intercepted on its way from Dubai to Denmark via Britain had been linked with al Qaeda, the principle target of Washington's "war on terror." The total number of fake goods intercepted by customs rose by 39 percent in 2001, following a tenfold increase in 2000. The number of fake CDs, DVDs and cassettes (and printed sleeve notes) grew to almost 40 million in 2001 from less than nine million in 2000. They accounted for 42 percent of all items seized. "A kilogram of CDs is worth more than a kilogram of cannabis," Wiedow said. Seizures of electrical equipment, the category dominated by fake Nokia products, more than tripled in 2001. But the number of toys and games, including the Nintendo products, fell by 77 percent from 2000. Other categories included clothing and sportswear, cosmetics, computers and watches as well as counterfeit food, medicines and car parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted July 26, 2002 Veteran Share Posted July 26, 2002 https://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.ph...&threadid=40000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted July 26, 2002 Share Posted July 26, 2002 Originally posted by Hypercube counterfeit food, medicines lol, thats kinda scary there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypercube Posted July 26, 2002 Author Share Posted July 26, 2002 Originally posted by Dazzla https://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.ph...&threadid=40000 But this is Back Page News. :ermm: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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