BIFA urges forwarders of legal perils in shipping counterfeit goods

THE British International Freight Association (BIFA) is urging its members to make sure that their procedures, when accepting consignments for shipment, are as tight as possible to avoid legal perils in shipping counterfeit goods.

The ongoing recession is fuelling the trade in fake products, said BIFA director general, Peter Quantrill. "Whilst freight forwarders, acting as an intermediary, must act in good faith when accepting consignments for shipment, they must also exercise reasonable diligence."

The European Commission recently published statistics showing that EC Customs detained almost 115 million items that were suspected of violating Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in 2011, up on 2010's figure of 103 million.

In total 73 per cent of all IPR-infringing goods originated in China, and 26.6 per cent of all detentions were of products, which could be dangerous to the health and safety of the consumer.

In 2011, 90 per cent of all detained products were either destroyed or passed to courts to determine whether any infringement had occurred.

Previously, BIFA highlighted its opposition to European Commission (EC) proposals to make the carrier (which would include consolidators, such as its members) responsible for the costs of disposing of counterfeit goods that infringe IPR.

"A carrier should not be held responsible for the actions of another party over whom it has either limited or no control, Mr Quantrill said. "We believe it is the owner of the copyright or brand, which benefits from the destruction of the IPR-infringing items.

"But whilst the area of who bears the cost for destroying such goods remains undecided, our members need to be doubly vigilant," he added.