PHILADELPHIA – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized a shipment of 32 counterfeit designer brand handbags March 10 that arrived in Philadelphia in an express delivery parcel from Turkey. If genuine, the handbags, which were destined to an address in Atlanta, would have had a manufacturer suggested retail price of $113,683.
This is the second significant shipment of designer brand handbags that CBP officers recently seized in Philadelphia, following the $317,080 in counterfeit designer brand products officers seized February 24.
CBP officers initially examined this latest shipment on February 26. The shipment contained 31 Louis Vuitton handbags and one Gucci handbag. Officers detained the shipment due to the poor quality and packaging of the merchandise.
CBP officers worked with CBP’s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Centers for Excellence and Expertise, the agency’s trade experts and verified through the trademark holder that the products were counterfeit.
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.
“Customs and Border Protection officers encounter a wide variety of counterfeit consumer goods, like these trademark-infringing products, and we continue to work with our trade and consumer safety partners to identify and seize counterfeit products,” said Joseph Martella, Area Port Director for the Area Port of Philadelphia. “CBP urges consumers to protect their families and their wallets by purchasing authentic goods from reputable vendors.”
CBP officers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) agents seized 27,599 shipments containing counterfeit goods in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. 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.
Additionally, HSI arrested 256 individuals, obtained 197 indictments, and received 157 convictions related to intellectual property crimes during FY 2019.
The People’s Republic of China remained the primary source economy for seized counterfeit and pirated goods, accounting for a total estimated MSRP value of over $1 billion or 66 percent of the estimated MSRP value of all IPR seizures.
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.