Customs Smuggling of Goods Infringing the Intellectual Property Rights in the European Union

Abstract

This research article aims to investigate the customs smuggling of intellectual property rights infringing goods in the EU. There is no doubt that it is a phenomenon that has accompanied humanity from the beginning of the development of trade, it cannot be eliminated, but its scale can be limited (D. Matthews, P. Žikovska, 2013). The analysis used data taken from reports on intellectual property right enforcement in the EU in 2009-2020. The results show the scale and new trends in customs smuggling of goods on the EU market, but the analyses carried out do not provide a clear basis lo conclude [hat the EU customs authorities are winning the fight against customs smuggling, despite the observed decrease in confiscated goods or the number of opened proceedings, as these drops are largely related to the lockdown due lo Covid-19 and the placing of goods with high customs risk under customs control.