News 
Brazil this year played host to the twentieth football World Cup, in the process attracting large numbers of tourists from all four corners of the globe. Hence a golden opportunity for counterfeiters, faced with a multitude of potential customers. The FH took the decision to intervene at this international event in order to show forgers once again that it was keeping its weather eye open.
To this end, in collaboration with its local delegate, the FH selected a handful of choice targets as the focus for seizures. They included the “Feira dos Importados”, covering an area of 70,000 square metres and home to nearly 2,000 stands, which is known to be one of Brazil’s largest black markets. Here, each week around 100,000 visitors are offered all kinds of counterfeit products, from T-shirts and other clothing to electronic devices, bags, watches and accessories.
On 3 July this year, the SEOPS (a branch of the civil police) and the DCPIM (special unit for the protection of intellectual property) made an appearance at the market in response to the FH request in order to seize any counterfeit Swiss watches being offered for sale. In total, nearly 7,500 timepieces were confiscated and will therefore not find takers among the many potential buyers. All in all, a very positive result for this first action taken by the FH at the market, which will remain under intensive surveillance. Indeed, work over the long term is indispensable to ensure any real positive effects, even if this intervention already sends out a strong signal.
Two more seizure operations are expected to take place shortly in other Brazilian regions also widely affected by the traffic in counterfeit goods.
August 25, 2014