Γιατί πρέπει να αφήσετε τα επώνυμα ρούχα σας στο σπίτι

Every country has their laws that seem unjust and that clearly don’t benefit the public. It’s important to know about these laws before you travel so you can avoid ruining your vacation (or your life!)

You may have heard that counterfeits are illegal in France, but it’s important to fully understand what this means. Customs officers have the right to seize anything they ‘suspect’ is a fake / counterfeit, fine you and charge you with a criminal offense. As we explain below, if you’re wearing anything with a logo, authentic or not, you run this risk.

Because of this law, we recommend that you do not purchase or wear any product that bears a trademarked logo or style while in France.

Will You Get Caught?

Αν αναρωτιέστε αν οι τελωνειακοί υπάλληλοι μπορούν να εντοπίσουν μια απομίμηση — ναι. Εκπαιδεύονται ετησίως από τις μεγάλες μάρκες και είναι ενεργά σε εγρήγορση. Αν φοράτε κάτι με λογότυπο, υπάρχει κίνδυνος να το παραβιάσει ένας τελωνειακός υπάλληλος.

Υπάρχουν stories posted on sites like TripAdvisor of tourists who’ve had sunglasses ripped from their faces on the street and snapped in half. Many tourists have left the airport with their belongings in a box after their counterfeit bags or suitcases were taken from them at the airport. There are also roadside checkpoints, where customs officers search cars, like the one at the Roquebrune highway exit near Μονακό set up to catch people who bought counterfeit items in Italy.

In 2021, 9.1 million counterfeit products of all kind were seized by the nearly 17,000 French customs officers, including 721,380 items of clothing, 316,746 shoes and 133,063 fashion accessories. Nice Customs alone, seized and destroyed 170,000 counterfeit products in 2021, which is 170% more than in 2020.

The Risks Are Not Small

By wearing anything with a logo (including even items like Nike sneakers), you open yourself up to being searched. And not just at the airportΕάν ένας τελωνειακός υπάλληλος (ακόμα και αν βρίσκεται εκτός υπηρεσίας ή «υπό κάλυψη») αποφασίσει να ελέγξει την αυθεντικότητα των ρούχων σας, μπορεί να σας αναγκάσει να του δώσετε το ρούχο, είτε πρόκειται για την τσάντα σας, το ρολόι σας, τα παπούτσια σας ή το φόρεμά σας. Στη συνέχεια, έχει την εξουσία να το πάρει και δεν υπάρχει τίποτα που μπορείτε να κάνετε γι' αυτό.

The law says that it doesn’t matter if you can prove that it was sold as authentic.

And if they fine you, it’s a secondary crime not to pay the fine immediately, even if you can’t afford it. And the fines stack up.

They can also then, without a warrant, search your hotel room or residence. In France, the powers of customs officers exceeds even the police in some ways.

And that’s not all. Customs notifies the brand of the fake items (and discloses your name, address and what you ordered), and that brand then has the right to initiate separate, additional proceedings before a civil or criminal court.

Ο νόμος ορίζει ότι δεν έχει σημασία αν μπορείτε να αποδείξετε ότι πωλήθηκε ως αυθεντική. Δεν έχει σημασία αν έχει κάρτα γνησιότητας ή αν ήταν δώρο. Αν ένας τελωνειακός ή αστυνομικός αρπάξει την τσάντα σας και πει ότι είναι «πλαστή», εξακολουθεί να αποτελεί έγκλημα, όπως ακριβώς αν πληρώσατε 20 ευρώ από έναν πλανόδιο πωλητή που σας είπε ότι είναι πλαστή.

A total of 9.1 million counterfeit goods were seized by French customs in 2021 alone.

Is There Any Way to be Safe?

Σύμφωνα με τους Γάλλους τελωνειακούς υπαλλήλους με τους οποίους μιλήσαμε, ο μόνος τρόπος για να αποφύγετε την ποινική δίωξη είναι να ψωνίζετε μόνο στις επίσημες μπουτίκ της μάρκας και να έχετε πάντα μαζί σας την κάρτα γνησιότητας και την απόδειξη.

Even then, if an employee at the boutique swapped out the authentic bag for a counterfeit (and nowadays even professional authenticators have trouble telling the difference) without you knowing, like famously happened for years with Hermes, then you’re still committing a crime and can be fined, have the item confiscated, get a criminal record, and even potentially be sent to jail.

Αυτός ο εξαιρετικά αυστηρός νόμος σημαίνει ότι, στη Γαλλία, δεν είναι ασφαλές (εάν το αντικείμενο φέρει λογότυπο) να:

• φορέστε οτιδήποτε αγοράσατε σε οποιαδήποτε από τις αγορές,
• shop at consignment shops (even famous ones like The RealReal),
• shop online,
• buy used or shop on eBay (where 90% of Louis Vuitton and Dior items sold είναι πλαστά),
• αγοράστε από καταστήματα που πωλούν πολλές μάρκες,
• να δεχτείτε οποιοδήποτε δώρο ή πακέτο από φίλους (στην πραγματικότητα, δεν χρειάζεται καν να το δεχτείτε για να σας απαγγελθούν κατηγορίες για κάποιο έγκλημα — απλώς πρέπει να το ταχυδρομήσουν μαζί σας ως παραλήπτη!),
• ή ακόμα και να αγοράσετε από την επίσημη μπουτίκ, σε περίπτωση που κάποιος που εργάζεται εκεί ανταλλάξει το προϊόν με ένα πλαστό.

Ο νόμος βλάπτει τους ανθρώπους που δεν τον γνωρίζουν

This law applies to everything from smartphones to handbags to medicine to cigarettes to ink cartridges. Given that, it would not be unreasonable to assume that most of the counterfeits sold are to people who have no idea that the item is counterfeit.

If you think “it was advertised as the real thing. Surely I won’t get in trouble for accidentally buying fake sneakers or ink cartridges on Amazon!?” you’d be wrong. The law states that even if you thought the items were authentic, you will still be charged with committing a crime.

So those Hermes customers who paid the normal Hermes prices and bought what they thought were legit bags from Hermes employees working at a Hermes store? In France, not only the ex-Hermes employees, but also those Hermes customers, committed a crime.

Police and Customs here have sweeping authority to search you, your car and your home for counterfeit products, without the type of warrant or authorization that’s required in countries like the USA. The bottom line is that

Many counterfeits are sold on major platforms like Amazon, where consumers assume the items have been vetted. But Nike pulled their sneakers from Amazon because so many counterfeits were being sold on the platform. Chanel has sued several of the largest and most reputable online consignment stores, like The RealReal, for selling counterfeits and telling customers that they’ve been authenticated. Even Target (one of the largest American chain stores) was sued by Coach for selling fake handbags.

Multiple experts recently told Vogue UK that these higher-quality fakes are made in the same factories as the authentic bags. “Sometimes the factory will produce 10,000 of a product and then make 2,000 on the run and sell them off cheaply,” Cassandra Hill, a lawyer at Mishcon de Reya specializing in intellectual-property litigation, told the magazine.

“Folks will be shopping on marketplaces and think they’re buying a secondhand, expensive handbag and it’s a fake,” explains the International Trademark Association President, Bob Barchiesi. There are also standalone websites designed to look like authentic retailers to deceive shoppers that even use photos of authentic products, says Barchiesi, only to ship fake ones.

”Consumers think these online sellers are [legitimate] brand-name outlet stores [located in Europe] while in reality they are not even located in Europe but in China.” explains Saija Kivimäki, lawyer at the European Consumer Centre. Kivimäki says that it is increasingly difficult to recognize websites selling counterfeit products as the number of sites has surged, with some of them now looking very convincing.

A customs officer explained that with ‘superfake’ counterfeit apparel, “The quality is getting better. Sometimes these factories, especially in China, it’s the same factory that’s making the good for the brand owner is also making the counterfeits.” Another customs officer told WWD that “More often than you would think, they are ‘legitimate’ offshore contract manufacturers of the genuine goods, who are running a ‘third shift’ that goes out the back door to a friend or relative who runs the distribution of the counterfeit goods.”

Fakes have become more sophisticated, with some looking and feeling so close to the real thing that it’s borderline impossible to figure out.

As Fashionista reported: “Fakes are getting more realistic. While distinguishing a fake from a real handbag used to be a fairly straightforward and easily Google-able process, there’s been an explosion of what some are calling ‘super fakes’, ‘Triple-A fakes’ or ‘line-for-lines’ over the past five or so years. To the untrained eye, they look like the real thing. You might even have one yourself and not know it. Our own Alyssa was once told by The RealReal that her Balenciaga bag — which she purchased at a prominent luxury retail chain and had no reason to doubt the authenticity of — was fake,” and “Fakes have become more sophisticated, with some looking and feeling so close to the real thing that it’s borderline impossible to figure out.”

Despite this, this outdated and super-harsh law says that you are committing a crime “regardless of whether the infringement is intentional.” And the onus is on the consumer to somehow be able to tell if an item is authentic or not. The Customs website gives several unhelpful tips for how to tell counterfeit from authentic, in an attempt to lay the blame on the consumer. This is incredibly unrealistic, given that

Want the law changed? Contact the EU Council via social media και their online form to tell them that you want an EU-wide law that decriminalizes possession of counterfeits.

French Counterfeit Law Hurts the Working Class

Let’s be real. The vast majority of people buying counterfeit items — knowingly or not — are low-income people who are looking to save money. These are exactly the people who will go into debt to pay off these unreasonable fines imposed by Customs.

Φανταστείτε το εξής: ένας πατέρας ψάχνει για ένα εξαντλημένο παιχνίδι και, αφού ψάχνει άκαρπα σε καταστήματα, στρέφεται στο διαδίκτυο, όπου βρίσκει το παιχνίδι στο eBay. Το παραγγέλνει, ελπίζοντας να κάνει έκπληξη στην κόρη του. Αλλά το πακέτο αναχαιτίζεται από το τελωνείο και αντ' αυτού λαμβάνει μια τρομακτική ειδοποίηση ότι έχει διαπράξει έγκλημα και πρέπει να παρουσιαστεί στο τελωνείο για ποινική ακρόαση. Στη συνέχεια, προσλαμβάνει έναν δικηγόρο για 5.000 ευρώ (η τρέχουσα τιμή) ο οποίος τον συνοδεύει στην ακρόαση του τελωνείου, αλλά δεν μπορεί να πετύχει την άρση των ποινικών κατηγοριών ή του προστίμου επειδή, όπως εξηγεί ο τελωνειακός υπάλληλος, «το όνομά σας είναι στο κουτί».

Για ένα άλλο παράδειγμα, μια κόρη φροντίζει τη μητέρα της, η οποία είναι άρρωστη. Τα συνταγογραφούμενα φάρμακα είναι ακριβά στο τοπικό φαρμακείο, οπότε εκείνη πηγαίνει στο διαδίκτυο για να τα αγοράσει, όπου είναι φθηνότερα. Το τελωνείο κατάσχει το δέμα και το ίδιο συμβαίνει και σε αυτήν.

Or a teenager who saves up his allowance to buy Nike sneakers on Amazon, thinking (wrongly) that anything purchased via a major retailer is safe. He’s proud of himself, and excited to show off his new kicks on the Promenade d’Anglais, but within an hour a customs officer spots him, takes his shoes, and he walks home barefoot, crying. A week later he receives an summons to attend a criminal hearing, where he’s charged with a fine he can’t afford.

When counterfeit items get caught by Customs, the person whose name is on the box is then forced to go to a criminal hearing, is charged with a crime, and fined (up to €300,000). But anyone can see that it seems cruel to heavily fine and jail a low income person for trying to buy things at lower cost, most of whom don’t know that the item is counterfeit.

This law directly contradicts what France is supposed to stand for: protecting the working class. Instead, it protects mega-corporations at the expense of the working class (and everyone else).

The Law is Ripe for Abuse

Given that customs officers merely need to have the ‘suspicion’ of the item being a fake, and can take potentially authentic and expensive items from anyone, with the threat of court dates, lawyer fees, jail time and massive fines, this law is perfectly set up for potential abuse.

And given that many brands make it impossible to retroactively get a record of your purchases, even when purchased from the designer brand boutiques (and you definitely can’t get a replacement authenticity card), even people with authentic designer items can have a hard time proving that their items are authentic.

Even if someone mails you a package as a gift (and you can prove it), and you have absolutely nothing to do with the purchasing of it, Customs may seize it and you will still be charged with a crime and fined, simply because your name is on the box. And if your ‘friend’ keeps mailing you counterfeits? The fines and jail time increase with each instance. Obviously, this could be used maliciously.

Flawed Justification Behind Law

The justification for these laws is flawedΟι αστυνομικοί εκτελούν τις εντολές των πολυτελών εμπορικών σημάτων, εκπαιδεύονται από τις μάρκες πολυτελείας και εισπράττουν πρόστιμα εκ μέρους αυτών των εμπορικών σημάτων με βάση την ιδέα ότι κάθε ευρώ που δαπανάται για μια πλαστή τσάντα είναι ένα ευρώ που η εταιρεία θα μπορούσε διαφορετικά να είχε κέρδος. Αλλά η αλήθεια είναι ότι σχεδόν όλοι οι άνθρωποι που αγοράζουν πλαστές τσάντες το κάνουν επειδή δεν έχουν την οικονομική δυνατότητα να αγοράσουν τα αυθεντικά είδη, επομένως αυτή είναι μια ψευδής δικαιολογία.

As the legal counsel for eBay stated when a French court fined them for not doing enough to police the sale of counterfeits: “Today’s decisions are not about fighting counterfeiting. It’s about LVMH’s desire to protect commercial practices that exclude all competition.” In other words, the brands are trying to kill the resale market.

This law seems designed to help brands to eliminate the resale market and any competition to their official boutiques.

The advice of customs officers is to destroy any item that bears a logo, including clothing, jewelry, bags and even electronics, that weren’t purchased at that brand’s official boutique and for which you don’t have a (verifiable, from the official boutique) receipt and authenticity certificate for. This parrots what luxury fashion brands want, as luxury brands famously hate the resale market, eco-consciousness be damned.

The Catch-22 is that most brands, like Chanel, refuse to give a certificate of authenticity after the purchase, an after-purchase copy of the receipt, or a list of past purchases to customers (they will “only provide it directly to insurance companies”). Customers have accounts with luxury brands that have a list of their purchases, so why would they refuse a customer’s request for a copy of this list? Clearly, they are trying to quash the resale market.

A Better Way

When this law was created, it was much easier to tell if something was fake. Nowadays it’s nearly impossible, even σύμφωνα με the President of the International Trademark Association. Clearly, this law needs to be updated to remove criminal and financial liability from consumers, and place it all on the sellers.

Counterfeiting may account for as much as 7% of world trade, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Nevertheless, luxury brands are recording record profits and record demand year after year. The CEO of LVMH (the conglomerate that owns many luxury fashion brands, and is a major partner with the French government on anti-counterfeit punishment) is the world’s richest human. He’s wealthier than Jeff Bezos, and yet massive amounts of French taxpayer money goes to helping him impose fines on poor French people and unsuspecting tourists.

“Fake luxury goods are the most visible… but we estimate that they amount to about 5% of the global market for counterfeits,” said Marc-Antoine Jamet, head of Union des Fabricants, a French manufacturers’ association. “Despite countless raids, airport interceptions, lawsuits by luxury brands and entire coalitions dedicated to curbing the production and stateside distribution of these illegal counterfeit products, like the International Anti-Counterfeit Coalition (IACC), the market is thriving and even advancing,” Fashionista reports.

So why spend so much taxpayer money going after regular people and tourists who wear fake sneakers or bags? Why not focus all the effort on the sellers? Clearly, given that the counterfeit market keeps increasing (as is the market for authentics), going after regular citizens is not an effective solution.

Η δικηγόρος Naree Chan δήλωσε ότι ενώ η πώληση παραποιημένων προϊόντων είναι «παράνομη στις ΗΠΑ, οι νόμοι προς το παρόν δεν τιμωρούν κάποιον που αγοράζει παραποιημένα προϊόντα. Στην πραγματικότητα, οι νόμοι υποθέτουν ότι οι καταναλωτές εξαπατώνται αθώα και προσπαθούν να προστατεύσουν τους έντιμους Αμερικανούς από τις κακές προθέσεις των κατασκευαστών που επιδιώκουν να βγάλουν γρήγορα χρήματα». Αυτός είναι ένας πολύ πιο συμπονετικός και ηθικός τρόπος προσέγγισης του ζητήματος των παραποιημένων προϊόντων.

Given that this hurts tourism (would you come back to a place that took your belongings, fined you, and told you that next time you could end up in jail?), we feel that this law urgently needs changing. We hope that someday the EU will see this and change the laws to protect both the public και the brands.

Want the law changed? Contact the EU Council via social media και their online form to tell them that you want an EU-wide law that decriminalizes possession of counterfeits.

What To Do…

If you are in trouble with Customs, they will tell you that you need to attend an official criminal hearing, likely with 2 or 3 Customs officers present. They will read you your rights, tell you that you are committing perjury if you lie, and then spend a couple of hours asking you the same questions in multiple ways. It’s your choice if you want a lawyer to accompany you, but it’s not required.

…If Customs Took Your Authentic Item

As a lawyer who is familiar with customs cases, Karine Disdier-Mikus told us: “Recourse can be possible especially if the product seized is an authentic product and not a counterfeit. If the owner believes it is authentic but it isn’t, the transaction with customs is likely to occur with a seizure of the product with or without a fine. If it actually is authentic, then the owner will have to demonstrate this by providing the authentic invoice. Following a custom control, it is possible to submit a written complaint to the register of the customs service concerned. Should no satisfactory answer be received, a complaint can be submitted to the Mediator of the economic and financial ministries through a form. It is also possible to challenge a decision according to Article 44 of the Union Custom Code.”

Wondering what customs does with all the authentic items they take from people? Auction them off, of course.

More reading: Here’s a list of things you can’t bring into France, and the associated penalties. Here’s the details of the law.

Want the law changed? Contact the EU Council via social media και their online form to tell them that you want an EU-wide law that decriminalizes possession of counterfeits.