STERLING, Va. – Unscrupulous vendors work very hard to increase profit margins, oftentimes at the consumers’ expense when the consumer is left with an inferior or unsafe product. One of Customs and Border Protection’s priority trade enforcement missions is to protect American businesses’ intellectual property and to protect American consumers against the threat posed by potentially dangerous goods.
brand name belts, handbags, shirts and pants.
On Tuesday, CBP officers at Washington Dulles International Airport checked those boxes when they seized nearly $3 million in counterfeit consumer goods from China.
The shipment, which arrived on August 22, and destined to a drop shipper in Dallas, was manifested as “sticker storage bag.” The shipment consisted of 74 boxes that included 4,213 belts of various designer brand names, 176 Louis Vuitton handbags, 39 Gucci shirts, 37 pairs of Gucci pants, and six Louis Vuitton shirts.
CBP officers detained the shipment August 24 as suspected counterfeit goods. CBP’s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandise Center of Excellence and Expertise and the Apparel, Footwear and Textiles CEE, the agency’s trade experts, worked with trademark holders and verified that all 4,471 products were counterfeit. They appraised the products at $2,950,479 manufacturer’s suggested retail price, if authentic.
CBP officers seized the shipment on Tuesday.
Homeland Security Investigations agents in Dallas is pursuing an investigation of the drop shipping company.
“This is a significant seizure of counterfeit consumer goods that steals revenue from trademark holders, robs consumers of the high quality they expect with designer brand names, and more importantly, hits a disreputable seller where it hurts most -- in the pocket,” said Casey Durst, Director of Field Operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office. “Customs and Border Protection remains steadfast in our commitment to continue working with Homeland Security Investigations and our consumer safety partners to identify and seize counterfeit and potentially dangerous commercial goods and hold disreputable vendors accountable.”
CBP urges consumers to protect themselves and their families by always purchasing safe, authentic goods from reputable vendors.
CBP protects businesses and consumers every day through an aggressive Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) enforcement program. Importation of counterfeit merchandise can cause significant revenue loss, damage the U.S. economy, and threaten the health and safety of the American people.
On a typical day in 2019, CBP officers seized $4.3 million worth of products with Intellectual Property Rights violations. Learn more about what CBP did during "A Typical Day" in 2019.
CBP officers and Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) agents seized 27,599 shipments containing counterfeit goods in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, down from 33,810 seizures in FY 2018. However, the total estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of the seized goods, had they been genuine, increased to over $1.5 billion from nearly $1.4 billion in FY 2018.
E- Commerce sales have contributed to large volumes of low-value packages imported into the United States. In FY 2019, there were 144 million express shipments and 463 million international mail shipments. Over 90 percent of all intellectual property seizures occur in the international mail and express environments
The People’s Republic of China (mainland China and Hong Kong) remained the primary source economy for seized counterfeit and pirated goods, accounting for 83 percent of all IPR seizures and 92 percent of the estimated MSRP value of all IPR seizures.
Read CBP’s Intellectual Property Seizure Report for Fiscal Year 2019 for more IPR stats and analysis.
CBP's border security mission is led at ports of entry by CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations. Please visit CBP Ports of Entry to learn more about how CBP’s Office of Field Operations secures our nation’s borders.