Tanzania: Counterfeit Goods Hurt Economy – FCC
Tanzania Fair Competition (FCC) has warned dishonest traders to refrain from importing substandard goods and ensure they stick to business ethics.
The commission’s Communication and Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Mdimi, said this when destroying counterfeit goods seized during various operations conducted by the government watchdog.Speaking during the exercise, Mr Mdimi said the commission will have more special operations to support the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Charles Mwijage’s statement of making sure there are no fake goods in the market.”Now the war against fake and counterfeit goods is cemented. We will go round and net all those who store fake goods,” stressed Mr Mdimi, adding that no stone will left unturned. FCC, acting in conformity with the Merchandise Mark Act (1963), as amended, has destroyed a number of counterfeit goods valued at over 60m/-
http://allafrica.com/stories/201606270328.html
Lear MoreGuilty verdict for tobacco teabag smugglers
Two men of Chinese origin who hid tobacco in tea bags were found guilty of smuggling and failing to declare to Tonga Customs tobacco in excess of the legal limit when the men arrived at Fua’amotu International Airport, in April last year.
http://matangitonga.to/2016/06/24/guilty-verdict-tobacco-teabag-smugglers
Lear MoreDelhi HC Asks Ludhiana Based Firm To Stop Selling Fake LV Products. Sorry, Ladies!
A Ludhiana based firm came under the scrutiny of Delhi High Court and was ordered to stop manufacturing, selling or dealing goods bearing the logo of renowned French Fashion house Louis Vuitton Malletier.
Louis Vuitton (LV) had earlier filed a petition alleging that a company ‘Guru Kripa’ was selling counterfeit products bearing its registered trademarks. This in turn had diminished the reputation of their brand while burdening them with irreparable losses.
Moreover, LV has also sought damages of over Rs 1 crore from the firm and its proprietors.
As the matter came up for hearing, fashion lovers’ support completely tilted towards LV.
http://daily.bhaskar.com/news/TOP-fake-louis-vuitton-products-5355479-PHO.html
Lear MoreAuthorities Sniffing Out Alleged Fake Laundry Detergent
Recent raids by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department turned up more than 400 buckets of apparently counterfeit laundry detergents at multiple locations in the Los Angeles area.ABC News was there when the raids were conducted. According to authorities, the fake detergent is available for sale at swap meets, fundraisers and online.Investigators say that dealers allegedly buy the phony detergent for about $5 and then sell it for sometimes as much as five times the purchase price.Counterfeiting overall is a nearly $500 billion a year business. This past year alone, Procter & Gamble has helped to identify close to 50 factories that are sending out counterfeit goods.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/authorities-sniffing-alleged-fake-laundry-detergent/story?id=40031928
Lear MoreZimbabwe: Govt Blames Smuggling On Transit Truckers
GOVERNMENT has identified transit truckers as the biggest culprit responsible for significant volumes of smuggled goods entering Zimbabwe and has moved to plug the leakages that cost the country $1,5 billion annually.Smuggling has been detected through the identification of an unprecedented amount of products that have high punitive charges and attract duties finding themselves onto the market, into shops and on the streets.The goods being smuggled include cigarettes, clothing, cooking oil, furniture, milk products, tooth paste, detergents and maheu, among others.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201606190062.html
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Countering Hawaii’s illegal counterfeit trade – Honolulu
Deforest Buckner just joined the NFL, but he’s already in another group: athletes whose names are been illegally used to sell counterfeit goods.
DeForest just got picked up in the first round of the NFL, and here you already have his counterfeit jersey out,” said Joanna Ip, a Special Agent with the Department of Homeland Security.Why are federal agents investigating counterfeits coming into Hawaii?”Counterfeit items are being used to fund illicit activities around the world. Some products are linked to organizations involved in terrorist activities,” said Ip.Counterfeits also raise concerns over public safety.
http://www.kitv.com/story/32251805/countering-hawaiis-illegal-counterfeit-trade
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Cigarette smuggling on the rise in Dublin
Cigarette smuggling is on the rise in Dublin, a retailer lobby group have claimed.Retailers against Smuggling Spokesperson Benny Gilsenan said the crime is “rampant” in the capital and is having a severe effect on small businesses.”Small shops are being forced to close down because of illegal trade,” he said.”It’s not just the profit from the cigarettes, it’s the fact that smokers are not coming in to buy other things like a bottle of water here, a pack of crisps there.”A recent report published by Grant Thornton pointed to rising tax rates as a driving factor in the tobacco smuggling trade.
http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/cigarette-smuggling-rise-dublin-say-11484211
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Government loses RM2.5b tax revenue due to illicit cigarette trade, assemblyman says
The illegal cigarette trade is causing the government to lose about RM2.5 billion in tax revenue last year, National Kenaf and Tobacco Board chairman Datuk Mohd AdhanKechik said. He said the figure was arrived at based on information received from tobacco industry players. “The smuggling of illegal cigarettes is said to be due the exorbitant cigarette prices here, which is among the highest (in the region) besides Singapore and Brunei.
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Cigarette smuggling increases multifold in India
Reports are coming that cigarette consumption in India has dipped, but with an increasing number of women smokers – fresh data from intelligence agency reveals that smuggling of foreign-brand cigarettes in India has skyrocketed by almost 300 per cent.
All India data of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), available with Indiatoday.in – in terms of quantity, smuggling of cigarette has increased multi-fold. Till March 31, 2016 – 13.76 crore number of sticks were seized by the agency – worth Rs 123 crore, whereas, during 2014-15, the number of sticks were 11.83 crore – worth Rs 106 crore.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/cigarette-smuggling-increases-multi-fold-in-india/1/694312.html
Lear MorePublic health interventions to protect against falsified medicines: a systematic review of international, national and local policies.
Accurate definitions of poor quality medicines are essential. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the umbrella term, ‘Substandard/Spurious/Falsely labelled/Falsified/Counterfeit medical products’ (SSFFC ( World Health Organization 2016a ), sometimes shortened to SFFC), though there is no universally agreed definition for this. Previously, WHO defined ‘counterfeit’ medicines as being, ‘deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source’ (World Health Organization 2016a ). However, it has been argued that the causes and solutions of the constituent problems in the SSFFC grouping are different ( Newtonet al. 2011a ; Attaran et al. 2012 ); in particular, ‘counterfeit’ should not be conflated with falsified and substandard, as this may shift focus away from public health issues and more towards intellectual property (IP) concerns ( Newton et al. 2011a ). We use the term ‘ unregistered generic’ to refer to safe and effective medication manufactured without proper IP law authorisation. This is a legal and economic problem but does not pose a direct threat to public health and is not a major focus in this review. In contrast, ‘ substandard ’ drugs are, ‘genuine medicines produced by manufacturers authorised by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) which do not meet quality specifications set for them by National standards’ ( World Health Organization, 2016a ). ‘Degraded ’ medicines were of adequate quality when they left the factory but have subsequently degraded, for example through inadequate storage or transport conditions ( Newton et al. 2009 ). We use ‘ falsified ’ to refer to medicines that have been fraudulently produced and distributed and which do not meet the quality specifications for that drug—these are the primary focus of this review. Lastly, we use the term ‘ poor quality ’ to refer collectively to falsified, substandard and degraded medicines, which all pose serious threats to public health.
Poor quality medicines directly harm patients by denying them access to potentially life-saving active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), or exposing them to toxins. It was recently estimated that 122 350 deaths in children under 5 years old in Sub-Saharan Africa were attributable to poor quality antimalarials in 2013 ( Renschler et al. 2015 ), representing 3.75% of all under-five child deaths in the region. Poor quality medicines also have pernicious consequences for communities and healthcare systems ( Newton et al. 2006b , 2010 ; Mackey and Liang 2011 ;Karunamoorthi 2014 ), causing lack of faith in healthcare amongst local people and providing a source of funding for organised crime networks. Of broadest consequence is the potential to promote antimicrobial resistance (AMR), now recognised as a major threat to global public health ( Pisani 2015 ).
https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/31/10/1448/2567085
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