World Customs Organisation (WCO) fear that the World Cup 2006 will be a 'golden opportunity for criminals to flood the market with pirated products'. According to the industry, fake World Cup merchandise, such as shirts and scarves, could cost businesses millions in lost profit.
The WCO and the Commission have also warned that those purchasing counterfeit World Cup products take serious health risks. "There is a high risk for your own safety if you buy some of those products. People can get sick, injured or even worse," said John Pulford, from Commission's DG Taxation and Customs union in an interview with Reuters. "It's not just the jerseys and scarves which burn very quickly, they are very dangerous and can cause rashes, but stuff like bars of chocolate which we don't know where they came from or what's in them or lighters which are not child-proof," he explained.
An international workshop on combating counterfeit and piracy in relation to the FIFA World Cup 2006 was jointly organised by the Commission, the WCO and the Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry (FESI) on 29-30 May 2006.
This piracy meeting enabled customs authorities, the private sector and other rights stakeholders to share experience on issues such as detection of faked products and the latest modus operandi used by counterfeiters. The workshop was also an opportunity to co-ordinate technical co-operation between these stakeholders and is expected to be the beginning of a more regular co-operation on the issue in the future.
