Last year, German customs officials confiscated a total of over 200 million euros worth of counterfeits. This is significantly less than in the previous year, when counterfeits worth around 434 million euros were confiscated, and the lowest figure for several years. And although the number of border seizures rose from around 17,000 to around 20,000 cases, the number of seized items also dropped by more than half: While around 8.6 million counterfeits had been seized in 2022, German customs only reported around 3.3 million seized counterfeits in 2023. This is shown in the new annual customs report for 2023, which Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner and President of the Directorate General of Customs, Colette Hercher, presented in May.
// Total value of counterfeits seized, 2019 to 2023
according to respective annual customs statistics for Germany
In terms of seizure value, German customs recorded a significant increase in only one category of goods, namely toys, games, and sporting goods. Here, the value almost doubled to approx. 6 million euros (2022: approx. 3.5 million euros). The highest overall seizure value was recorded for goods from the personal accessories category, as in both the 2022 report and the 2021 customs report. For this product category, which includes items such as sunglasses, bags, watches and jewelry, customs reported a seizure value of around 90 million euros for 2023 (2022: approx. 280 million euros).
While the overall number of counterfeit products intercepted also decreased significantly in 2023, customs also saw increases in some product categories. For example, the number of seized pharmaceutical products more than doubled to approx. 46,000 items (2022: approx. 22.000 items). The number of seized counterfeit goods also increased in the categories of electrical/electronic equipment and computer equipment, clothing and accessories, personal care products, personal accessories, toys, games and sporting goods.
As in the previous years, the People’s Republic of China was once again the leading country of origin for counterfeit goods in 2023. Based on the number of confiscated goods, around half of the counterfeit goods seized came from there. Second and third place also remained the same as in 2022, with the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong (around 19%) and Turkey (around 10%). Other important countries of origin this year included the United Kingdom with around 7% as well as Bulgaria and India, each accounting for around 5% of the total number of counterfeits seized.
// Countries of origin of seized counterfeits 2023, in precent
according to 2023 customs statistics for Germany, by quantity of seized goods
It is also interesting to look at the transportation routes of seized counterfeits: The most important trade channel in the previous year, sea freight, fell drastically in 2023, from around 80% to only around 28% (based on the number of seized counterfeits). Last year, the largest number of seized goods was transported by air, which almost tripled compared to 2022 and amounted to around 36%. And road transport in second place made a significant jump in 2023 too, from around 5% to around 33%. If we look at the seizure value, air freight shipments are also in first place, although they have fallen significantly compared to the previous year and now account for around 50% (2022: around 75%).
// Transport routes of seized counterfeits 2023, in percent
according to 2023 customs statistics for Germany, by QUANTITY/VALUE of seized goods
In terms of the intellectual property rights infringed by the seized products, violations of trademarks remain predominant and accounted for around 80% in 2023 (2022: approx. 91%). The second largest share, infringements of design rights, rose significantly to around 17%, which is almost three times the figure recorded in the previous year (2022: approx. 6%). Infringements of protected geographical indications remained at around 3%, while infringements of copyrights (approx. 0.29%), patents (approx. 0.02%) and trade names (approx. 0.01%) again played a minor role. Infringements of utility models and plant variety protection remained at 0%, to which they had already fallen in 2022.
The President of the Directorate General of Customs, Colette Hercher, thanked the customs employees for their efforts in clearing a total of more than 413 million shipments of goods with a value of approx. 1.4 trillion euros. At a press conference, she and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner also emphasized the importance of customs’ work for the German economy.
