Thailand DSI seizes counterfeit luxury goods in Phuket valued at more than 50 million baht

Officers from Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation raided warehouses in Phuket on Monday, where they seized more than 100,000 counterfeit items valued at more than 50 million baht.

The director of the Intellectual Property Department under the DSI investigated 5 warehouses that were reported to have stockpiled counterfeit goods. Authorities found fake luxury brand goods stored in 5 warehouses, including counterfeit clothes from brands such as Gucci, Nike, Chanel, Adidas and Louis Vuitton, according to a Khaosod report.

The officers seized all of the products and initially charged the warehouse operators for selling counterfeit goods or stockpiling counterfeit goods for sale, as well as buying or receiving products with fake trademarks, which Thai Customs did not approve.

Thai media reported that warehouses operators allegedly sold the counterfeit goods online via Facebook, where they actually declared that the products were indeed fakes, but high quality ones made in AAA grade.

Thailand has earned a notorious reputation for its ‘same same but different’ copies of well know brands for decades. The warehouses would deliver goods to the hundreds of shops scattered around the town that trade in the souvenirs and brand copies.

The authorities noted that this type of illegal retailing has put Thailand on the international watch list of intellectual property cases from the office of the US Trade Representative. The DSI said that they would keep an eye on the counterfeit products and dispose of them properly, to” improve the country’s reputation”.

SOURCE: Khaosod