Los Angeles–U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and import specialists assigned to the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport seized 16,340 counterfeit Gucci, Facebook and Instagram women sleeping dresses. If genuine, the seized merchandise would have had an estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $5,455,214.
CBP officers in coordination with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents assigned to the Trade Enforcement Coordination Center (TECC) seized the counterfeit products on June 12, which arrived from China in a shipment containing 329 bales of clothing. In 189 of those bales, CBP officers discovered the counterfeit products hidden in between generic versions of the sleeping dresses in a clear smuggling attempt.
Nationwide in fiscal year (FY) 2019, CBP seized 27,599 shipments containing goods that violated intellectual property rights. The total estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of the seized goods, had they been genuine, increased to nearly $1.5 billion from over $1.4 billion in FY 2018.
Watches and jewelry topped the list for number of seizures with 4,242 representing 15 percent of all seizures. Watches and jewelry continued as the top product seized by total MSRP with seizures valued at over $687 million, representing 44 percent of the total. Wearing apparel and accessories are second with seizures estimated to be valued at more than $226 million.
