Product piracy

Counterfeit luxury items confiscated at the airport

A Los Angeles Lakers jersey, the latest sneakers from Nike or even a nice purse from Louis Vuitton: The counterfeiters wanted to send thousands of fake luxury items from Thailand to the UK and the Netherlands via the Vienna hub.(Bild: BMF/Zoll)

Customs managed to strike a major blow against product pirates in November. A total of more than 5,000 counterfeit luxury items were seized, most of them clothing.

Vienna Airport in Schwechat, Lower Austria, has always been a hub for the international movement of goods in addition to the ever-growing volume of passengers. Many products that reach Austria from distant countries or that only pass through the country on their trade route have to pass through here at some point. However, not everything that is unloaded from planes from distant countries is legal. For example, goods that look confusingly similar to the designers' originals but have been copied, usually in poor quality, and are sold cheaply.

Louis Vuitton, Gucci and heaps of Nike items
As has only just become known, customs officers in the cargo area of the airport struck a major blow against product piracy in mid-November.

In four shipments from Thailand, which were only supposed to pass through Austria and were intended for customers in the UK and the Netherlands, customs discovered 5121 counterfeit branded products. These included counterfeit luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci - but also countless sports articles imitating the Nike brand.

1402 pairs of shoes, 1279 bags and rucksacks, 415 sports shirts, 378 caps, 193 jackets, 318 pieces of jewelry, 115 belts and 318 tracksuits were seized. Finance Minister Gunter Mayr was satisfied: "Product piracy is not a trivial offense!"