Crime, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation

The containers had been imported from China. The loss caused to the trademark holder is about 2.93 mln euros.

When inspecting the containers, customs officials discovered sports footwear in them. Some shoes were without any brands, but the majority carried the brand of Nike and had signs of counterfeit.

Representatives of Nike Innovate C.V. were asked to provide their opinion on the shoes and they confirmed that these are counterfeit goods.

VID representative Andis Stinka told that the containers with counterfeit goods had arrived at the Riga Freeport in December 2016. Finally, the transporter of the cargo applied for customs control, and the counterfeit goods were thus discovered.

Stinka said that recipients of the cargo were two persons in Russia. “Possibly, they had not come to pick up the cargo in fear of being caught. It is hard to tell whether the cargo had been meant for the Russian market or the Latvian market. Also if the recipients came to collect the cargo, it should have undergo customs control,” said Stinka.

The cargo will now be mechanically destroyed in a waste management company.

This year customs officials have seized in total 42,000 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes. In March customs officials seized 17,472 pairs of fake Nike shoes at the Riga Freeport.