France, home of luxe, wages war on fakes

By Laurence Frost
The Associated Press

LYON, France -- The man was sweating as he edged toward the blue-uniformed customs agents framing the doorway -- his only exit. Red-faced and incongruous in the air-conditioned cool of the arrivals area, he never had a chance.

Officers had singled out the French holidaymaker even before he touched down at Saint-Exupery Airport, on the outskirts of the southern city of Lyon. Poring over a flight manifest, they noticed he was the only passenger returning from Thailand, a major source of illegal counterfeit goods.

Brigade Cmdr. Bernard Mortelette opened the luggage the man was carrying and noticed something wasn't right.

"We put it to him that this probably wasn't his suitcase because it had a woman's clothes inside it," he said later. The case was restored to its concerned owner. Inside the 38-year-old engineer's unclaimed luggage -- which he may have planned to retrieve after the officers had left -- were two fake Rolexes, still wrapped. The lengths to which panicked tourists will go to avoid detection of their illicit souvenirs is one result of the tougher approach to counterfeiting in France.

With one of the world's richer concentrations of luxury goods makers to defend, France increased the maximum fine for buying fakes in March to three times the retail price of the authentic product. A $40 fake Rolex could incur a $12,000 penalty.

"There's a problem of supply, but there's also a problem of demand," said Nicolas Prelot, the group's project manager on counterfeiting. "Ordinary consumers who buy forgeries also should receive convictions."

The French and Italian laws are among the harshest in the world for individuals caught with counterfeit goods. U.S. laws provide for tough sanctions against individuals who carry out piracy or counterfeiting -- even on a small scale, for example by illegally downloading music -- but don't penalize those who buy the fake finished products.

"In most countries around the world, the consumption of infringing products is not a crime," said Eric Smith, president of the Washington-based International Intellectual Property Alliance.

But police concerns that terrorist groups are cashing in on counterfeiting -- which may account for as much as 7 percent of world trade, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- have added a new sense of urgency.

Interpol says intercepted fakes ranging from toiletries and cigarettes to brake pads and music CDs already have been linked to groups including al-Qaida, Hezbollah, the Irish Republican Army and the FARC rebels of Colombia.

A study prepared for the European Union reached similar findings last month, and Brussels announced plans to require all 25 member countries to treat the commercial manufacture or supply of counterfeits as a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment.

The European Commission also cited health and safety hazards posed by much of the ever-growing range of products forged on an industrial scale -- extending far beyond handbags and watches.

"Fake luxury goods are the most visible and do a lot of harm in France, but we estimate that they amount to about 5 percent of the global market for counterfeits," said Marc-Antoine Jamet, head of Union des Fabricants, a French manufacturers' association.

Besides the ubiquitous pirated films and software, there is a growing international trade in fake toys, medicines, foodstuffs, spare parts for cars and even passenger jets.

Lyon customs agents are under no illusion about their main adversary. An antique newspaper illustration, framed on their office wall, underlines the challenge with a caption: "A French customs inspector is murdered by the Chinese."

China consumes most of its own counterfeit output, but the remainder sold overseas is still enough to make it the world's largest exporter of fakes -- in ever more ingenious ways.

In a month, inspectors have unearthed thousands of fake Chanel earrings, Von Dutch T-shirts and Nike bracelets.

But it was a much smaller find that really got their attention, Division Chief Pascal Regard said -- three, crudely stitched, unmarked handbags discovered in a shipment from China. From openings cut into the rubberized fabric by an observant inspector emerged two fake Chanel bags and one Louis Vuitton that had been sewn into the linings.

The discreet shipment of immaculate fakes was probably a dry run for a larger planned shipment, Regard said.