Customs seize $52m worth of fake sports items amid Euro 2024

Kelly Kong

In a crackdown on counterfeiting during the Euro 2024 football tournament, Hong Kong Customs has seized nearly 70,000 pieces of fake and infringing sports products worth over HK$52 million.

The seized items include footballs, jerseys and sneakers, and nine people have been arrested in the operation.

The arrests were made during a series of operations conducted between June 3 and June 23, in which Customs officers busted 33 cases of intellectual property infringement and counterfeiting. The seized goods were found in local retail markets, online platforms and cross-border shipments.

Tam Pui-ying, head of Customs' intellectual property investigation group, said this was the highest number and value of counterfeit goods seized in this year's anti-counterfeiting campaign.

So Kim-fai, divisional commander of Customs' intellectual property transnational investigation, said the discoveries and arrests were made after officers raided over 60 logistics transfer centers and inspected a container arriving from Guangzhou, where they discovered over 6,000 sporting items related to the ongoing Euro 2024 and Copa America tournaments.

It is believed the goods were destined for transshipment to Europe, the US, the Middle East, and other regions, with only a small portion entering the local market.

Customs also found some of the counterfeit jerseys being sold online for HK$175 to HK$200 - around one-third the price of genuine products.

Counterfeit sports shoes were also discovered being sold at 30 to 50 percent of the market price for authentic items.

In a separate operation, Customs also arrested four people and seized around HK$230,000 worth of suspected illegal streaming devices on June 12.