Counterfeits

Every few weeks, I get a call from an international flight attendant who wants my help to deal with a huge fine issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The typical scenario is that while the nice international flight attendant is traveling overseas, she purchases some counterfeit, luxury brand handbags, wallets, watches or jewelry for friends, family, or co-workers back in the States.  Flight crews are rarely stopped and searched by U.S. Customs upon return to the United States, so the risk is low. Unfortunately, some do get stopped, and the Customs officer seizes the counterfeit items.  That is just the beginning of the nightmare.

Some weeks after Customs seizes the counterfeit items, the flight attendant will receive a formal written Seizure Notice stating what was seized, why it was seized, and providing an opportunity for him or her to file a Petition. Since the flight attendant typically only spent a few hundred dollars, and the stuff is clearly counterfeit, most people don’t bother to file a Petition, and the merchandise is automatically forfeited to U.S. Customs.

What the flight attendants need to know is that after the merchandise is forfeited, Customs will send a second letter assessing a fine pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 1526(f). The fine is equal to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSPR) as if those counterfeit items were real. So, instead of a fine of a few hundred dollars for a few, counterfeit Rolex or Chanel watches, the fine might total $100,000, as regular readers know from my August 10, 2010 blog […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is one of the leading Federal agencies responsible for stopping counterfeit products from entering the United States. U.S. Customs does a good job seizing counterfeit products at ports around the country on a daily basis.   These counterfeit products vary from sunglasses to handbags to pharmaceuticals to footwear.  But U.S. Customs’ press releases always use an unrealistic, inflated number when describing the value of the seized merchandise.

For example, last week in San Francisco, U.S. Customs allegedly seized $100 million counterfeit Gucci, Dooney & Bourke, and various other illegally trademarked merchandise from the Fisherman’s Wharf area.  It was originally reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, then appeared on the Associated Press wire to the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, and other newspapers around the country.  The Chronicle stated in part:

On Tuesday, they announced the seizure of more than 200,000 counterfeit retail items valued at $100 million – if they were genuine, that is – during what they called the largest-ever bust of retail counterfeiters on the West Coast.

Note the words, “if they were genuine, that is.” U.S. Customs uses the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), which nobody pays, in reporting the value of the seized merchandise to the press.  So, for example, a blatantly counterfeit Louis Vuitton handbag that would have been sold to a customer at Fisherman’s Wharf for $50 may be reported by U.S. Customs to be valued at $1,000, a multiple of 20 times the selling price.

Customs does a good job at identifying, […]