Beware of scams. In a few months, customs got their hands on a total of 100,000 fake stamps in France. The largest seizures were made in Marseille and the Paris region. Increasing traffic, at the heart of an anti-counterfeiting action plan.
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French customs are warning about the proliferation of fake postage stamps. More than 100,000 have been seized in recent months, the majority of which in Marseille and the Paris region. Around the capital, customs officers got their hands on 30,000 fake stamps in three months, mainly in express and postal freight. But the largest seizure was made on August 28 in Marseille, specifies a press release from French customs.
Customs officers from the Marignane office discovered 15,132 then 30,192 counterfeit stamps during a check of packages arriving by plane. These two packages, declared “decals”, were from Hong Kong and intended for an individual. They contained books of self-adhesive stamps bearing the La Poste logo and brand. It was then necessary to confirm that they were indeed counterfeits.
Each stamp has a value of 1.29 euros on the authentic market. The Marseille take therefore represents a total resale value of 58,468 euros.
The Post Office is filing a complaint against this recipient. He risks customs and criminal sanctions of up to 300,000 euros fine and three years in prison.
Counterfeiting constitutes a real scourge, which endangers know-how, innovation, the intellectual property of companies, consumer safety but also the balance of our economy and our services.
French customs
In 2023, customs will remove more than 20 million counterfeit items from the market. A new national anti-counterfeiting action plan has emerged for the period 2024-2026. In particular, it provides for the development of cooperation between customs officials and online sales platforms.
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