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Tue 14 Nov, 2006 01:36 pm
Quote:Germany impounds massive haul of counterfeit sneakers, including nearly 1M knockoff Nikes
November 14, 2006 10:05 AM
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - German customs officers have seized what they said could be the world's largest haul of counterfeit goods, including nearly 1 million pairs of knockoff Nike sneakers.
The customs department in the northern port of Hamburg said it had confiscated a total of 117 shipping containers filled with fake goods since the end of August.
The equivalent amount of genuine branded goods would be worth about 383 million euros ($490 million), it said in a statement.
The goods included 101 containers loaded with 945,384 pairs of counterfeit Nike sneakers, and 10 more containers with about 105,000 pairs of fake Adidas and Puma sports shoes. Also impounded were 76,760 knockoff watches and 1,454 toys.
The goods were shipped to Hamburg from Asia and were destined for recipients at addresses - some of them fictitious - in Italy, Austria and Hungary.
The customs department said it was up to brand-name holders such as Nike Inc. to take further legal steps against the suspected smugglers.
Contractors have begun shredding the estimated 1,500 tons of shoes and textiles and trucking the waste to incineration facilities for disposal.
Source
Cheezits, why not hand these out to the homeless and poor? What, were they owned by Donald Rumsfeld or something? Shred and burn them?
That's what the customs do here, with cigarettes, watches, drugs ... and Nikes.
According to what I know, that's done everywhere the same way.
Maybe, US customs do different, although according to Homeland Security, counterfeit items are destroyed by customs officers always and regularily.
I don't really care who does it, destroying clothing that is useful seems a total waste.
Well, the law doesn't care what you think.
I wasn't being snippy before, just thought it was wasteful, which it is.
I tend to agree. Seems like the logo can be ripped off, or something.
sozobe wrote:I tend to agree. Seems like the logo can be ripped off, or something.
That's what they do with the samples shown in custom exhibitions (watches are drilled throught) :wink:
Actually, it's alway the corporations that want such - they've even mostly their own eye-witnesses at those places.
Yeah, I believe that it comes from the corporations. It does seem like a shame, though. As long as the sneakers are functional, and the wrongdoers don't make a profit, and the (presumably inferior) product isn't identified as Nike...
I had a long talk about such "nonsense" at our custom office a couple of weeks ago when the custom officer told me she had to do the same paperwork with my two (2) cd's from USA as with 40 ton lorry from Russia ...
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