Articles and News

Louisville CBP Seizes $4.41 Million in Counterfeit Jewelry within 24 Hours April 12, 2023 (0 comments)

Louisville, KY--Within 24 hours, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Louisville intercepted three jewelry shipments containing counterfeit designer trademarks, attempting importation into the U.S.

[Image via Pixabay Commons]

On April 3, two shipments from the same Hong Kong location were destined for a private residence in Jeffersonville, Indiana, under different recipient names. Per a news report, the first shipment contained 400 bracelets with suspected Van Cleef and Arpels trademarks, while the second had 993 jewelry sets with similar suspect trademarks.

CBP's trade experts at the Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center of Excellence and Expertise (CEE) confirmed that the merchandise was inauthentic and infringed on trademarks recorded with CBP. If genuine, the items would have had a total Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $3.7 million.

A day later, CBP officers inspected another parcel from Hong Kong, bound for a Cleveland, Ohio, residence.

They discovered 1,367 counterfeit pendants with recorded trademarks, including Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, Yves Saint Laurent, Tiffany & Company, Versace, Givenchy, MCM, Dolce & Gabbana, MLB Yankees, and MLB Dodgers.

CBP's trade experts again determined that the items were not authentic and bore infringing trademarks. The total MSRP for this shipment would have been $710,295 if the items were genuine.

Homeland Security Investigations, the investigating arm of the Department of Homeland Security, now holds custody of these shipments for further investigation.

In Fiscal Year 2022, CBP seized over 24.5 million Intellectual property rights-violating items worth nearly $3 billion had the goods been genuine.

Learn more in the report.