PHILADELPHIA – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Philadelphia seized 269 pieces of designer brand jewelry from Hong Kong March 6, which, if authentic, held a manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of nearly $1.4 million.
CBP officers initially examined the parcel on February 13. The parcel, destined to a Philadelphia address, was manifested as stainless steel pendent with earrings. Officers discovered that the parcel contained various designer brand jewelry of poor quality and packaging, and suspected it to be counterfeit.
Officers submitted samples to CBP’s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Centers for Excellence and Expertise, the agency’s trade experts. CBP’s CEE specialists worked with the trademark holders and on February 28 determined the jewelry to be counterfeit.
Had the jewelry been authentic, it had an assessed MSRP of $1,379,650.
The parcel contained necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and diamond pendants bearing the names Cartier, Chanel, Bvlgari, and Tous.
This is Philadelphia CBP’s second significant counterfeit in a month. On February 28, CBP officers seized $233k in counterfeit designer brand watches from Hong Kong.
CBP protects businesses and consumers every day through an aggressive Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) enforcement program. On a typical day in 2017, CBP officers seized $3.3 million worth of products with IPR violations.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the number of IPR seizures increased 8 percent to 34,143 from 31,560 in FY 2016. The total estimated MSRP of the seized goods, had they been genuine, decreased to $1.2 billion from $1.38 billion in FY 2016
.As a result of CBP enforcement efforts, ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested 457 individuals, obtained 288 indictments, and received 242 convictions related to intellectual property crimes in 2017.
