Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Harsh Penalties for Wearing Counterfeit Clothing in Europe 


Wed 10 Jul 2019 | 02:51 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

Counterfeit products are very common around the world. In European countries, you may pay a fine reaches € 200,000 or imprisonment for wearing non-original brands of clothing.

The emphasis on property rights is no longer confined to books and cultural and musical productions.

Almost everything that can be traded is within the domain of property rights in European countries.

In Britain, downloading songs from websites and pictures printed on cups and souvenir shirts are included in the property rights.

Outsiders who buy gifts, especially women, may not pay attention to copied brands, and their ignorance may cost them a lot at the airport when they leave.

Buying such products became an offense and participation in the crime. Tourists, who often come to shop continuously, may find themselves in an awful predicament when they are criminally charged simply for buying a bag or shirt without paying attention to whether the brand is a real brand or just a counterfeit.

Counterfeit consumer goods are goods, often of inferior quality, made or sold under another brand`s name without the brand owner's authorization.

Sellers of such goods may infringe on either the trademark, patent or copyright of the brand owner by passing off its goods as made by the brand owner.

Counterfeit products made up 5 to 7% of world trade in 2013 and in 2014 cost an estimated 2.5 million jobs worldwide, with up to 750,000 jobs lost in the U.S. About 5% of goods imported into the European Union in 2013 were fakes, according to the OECD.

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