Travelers going to the US please note. If you are wearing a fake (duplicate) product of a brand like Puma, Adidas or Nike and you are arriving in the US by plane, you may get into trouble. The US customs officer may confiscate your clothes, shoes, jewelry or bags, and it is also possible that they may destroy them! It is also possible that a case may be filed against you.
In fact, US custom officers have increased supervision of smuggling of counterfeit goods. Under this, many expensive luxury items were confiscated from many Indian students and passengers flying to the US in recent months. According to a report published in the Times of India, during entry at the port, people saw how US officers and employees were ‘scissoring’ such clothes and belongings of people. Many times these items are thrown in the dustbin.
CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) rules say that you can carry any kind of counterfeit item (like a shirt, handbag, or shoes) provided that it is for personal use i.e. for your own use and not for selling i.e. for commercial use. They keep a close eye on everything and after questioning on the basis of suspicion, they decide what to do with this item.
Quoting a school teacher from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, the report says, “I went to the US to meet my son who is pursuing a master’s degree in supply chain management in Texas. I had eight shirts, four trousers, some socks and a pair of shoes. All the items were still packed as I had just bought them. But the officials at the port checked my bag and asked me several questions about where I was travelling from, who the items were for, whether I was smuggling them and so on. Though I tried to explain to them that it was all for my son, they insisted that I cannot take them because they were all fake items – copies of big brands. I did not know that these were banned. They threatened to put ‘criminal charges’ on me, I had no option but to let them confiscate everything immediately.”
He said that many items of clothing were torn before being thrown away… At least Rs 30,000 worth of goods were lost. A 27-year-old student from Hyderabad said that it is very common in India for people to sell and buy duplicates or copies of big brands. I did not know that carrying them in your luggage is such a serious crime. They do not even give any checklist so that people know what can be carried and what cannot. About 10 shirts, pants and three pairs of shoes of a student pursuing master’s in business management and economics from California were thrown in the garbage by the customs officials.
CPB officials said that investigations were intensified after 23 million counterfeit items were confiscated from 19,724 shipments last year as it is a violation of intellectual property rights (IPR). If these items were original and sold at the same fair price, they would be worth $2.7 billion. Counterfeit items are also harmful from a national security, public safety and economic point of view.
Tags: Fake documents, International Airport, Nike Shoes, NRI businessman, World news
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 20, 2024, 09:48 IST