WRITTEN QUESTION E-0846/97 by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE) to the Commission (10 March 1997)

Subject: Policy in respect of items seized in connection with Community fraud

More than seven years after the entry into force of the regulation on the protection of trade marks and intellectual property rights, the scope of which has been extended to authors' rights, utility models and logotypes, customs checks have been carried out in the various Member States.

Since copying and fraud are activities with major implications at Community level, what monitoring or coordination instruments are in operation? Is a dialogue being carried on between the Commission and Member States with a view to evaluating the impact of fraud and the measures to combat it? Does the Commission keep accounting records of the various items seized at Community level? Could the Commission provide detailed information, by year and by country, of seizures and the statistical trends relating thereto? What means exist to ensure that some of the items seized are not diverted to the goods trade?

There is a legislative void regarding the fate of such items once they have been seized. The current arrangement is for them to be systematically destroyed. Are there any plans for measures to enable them to be put to good use through the donation thereof to charitable and humanitarian organizations such as Caritas and the Red Cross? Is the Commission considering the possibility of providing a legal basis for a system enabling such seizures to be put to good use?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission (25 April 1997)

It was to strengthen the means of combating counterfeit and pirated goods that the Council adopted Regulation (EC) No 3295/94 of 22 December 1994 laying down measures to prohibit the release for free circulation, export, re-export or entry for a suspensive procedure of counterfeit and pirated goods ((OJ L 341, 30.12.1994 )). The Regulation permits the customs authorities, when using certain customs arrangements, to detain for 10 days goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights (trademarks, designs and models, copyright and the like). During that period the owners of intellectual property rights must either apprise the competent authority most often a legal body to obtain a decision on the matter or have the national authority so empowered to take interim protective measures, failing which the customs must release the goods in question.

Not until the conclusion of the national legal proceedings can the goods be actually deemed counterfeit or pirated and consequently confiscated. Since confiscation forms part of national legal proceedings, the Commission has no statistics on the subject.

Administrative cooperation between Member States for combating fraud is carried out under Council Regulation (EEC) No 1468/81 of 19 May 1981 on mutual assistance between the administrative authorities of the Member States and cooperation between the latter and the Commission to ensure the correct application of the law on customs or agricultural matters ((OJ L 144, 2.6.1981; as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 945/87 (OJ L 90 of 2.4.1987, p. 3). )). In addition to a number of practical steps, such as exchange of information, special surveillance operations and investigations, this Regulation makes provision for dialogue between Member States and the Commission on everything relating to the combatting of customs fraud including action against counterfeiting and pirating of goods. The Regulation was amended on 13 March 1997 in order to beef up or strengthen administrative cooperation and set up a database (SID - système d'information douanier or a customs information system) covering in particular all relevant operational information relating to fraud, specifically counterfeiting and pirated goods. The new system gives the Commission a fresh scope to take action.

In another connection the Commission is reviewing all of its legal armoury in order to assess the need to supplement it in the fields of mutual information and cooperation at Community level.

Regard, finally, the ultimate use of products which are deemed to be counterfeit or pirated and of ensuring that they do not return to the Community commercial channels, the Commission refers the Honourable Member to its answer to Written Question E-0066/97 ((OJ C 217 of 17.7.1997, p. 83. )).