United Nations Begins Anti-Counterfeiting Effort
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) began a campaign "to raise awareness among consumers of the $250 billion a year illicit trafficking of counterfeit goods," it said in a press release (here). "The illicit trafficking and sale of counterfeit goods provides criminals with a significant source of income and facilitates the laundering of other illicit proceeds." With no legal regulation and "very little recourse, consumers are at risk from unsafe and ineffective products and faulty counterfeit goods can lead to injury and, in some cases, death," it said. Brake pads and airbags, airplane parts, electrical consumer goods, baby formula, medicine and children's toys "are just some of the many different items which have been counterfeited,"
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The World Customs Organization said in a press release it welcomed the effort (here) "Criminals use similar routes and modi operandi to move counterfeit goods as they do to smuggle illicit drugs, firearms and people," and the 2013 "joint UNODC/WCO Container Control Programme detected counterfeit goods in more than one-third of all seized maritime containers," it said.