Italy: half a million fake glasses seized in one year

According to data on the seizures carried out by Italian customs officials, the Guardia di Finanza, 2004 closed with an increase registered in almost all sectors, from clothing to accessories and from footwear and eyewear, and totaled 86 million counterfeit items.

In percentage terms, one of the sectors hardest hit is eyewear: the quantity discovered by Customs is three times higher than in 2003 (+286%) and exceeds half a million items (502,115).

In absolute terms, there has been a staggering rise in the number of toys: from the 13 million of two years' ago to over 33 million last year. These are products with no CE marking or, for instance, toys of characters covered by copyright, or non-original playing cards for children.

The number of counterfeit brand names has also increased from almost 3 million to over 7 million. These are labels or markings which identify a designer and can be attached, even in Italy, to sweatshirts, shirts or T-shirts.

On the increase are also seizures of shoes, almost 600%, although in actual numbers the figure stands at around 300 thousand items.

A certain number of the transactions concerning counterfeit goods are carried out on the Internet; this is a new element to take into account. On the world's best known online auction and purchasing sites, eBay, it is easy to obtain counterfeit products at giveaway prices: Nike shoes, Gucci eyewear and Prada purses at around 1 euro-cent.

(Source: Il Sole 24 Ore)