The customs officers working at Vienna-Schwechat Airport succeeded in a major bust, as in March 2024 a consignment of goods consisting of 53 boxes was confiscated and was said to contain around 7.000 counterfeit branded products.

The counterfeits arrived in Vienna from Hong Kong by air freight. These were to be transported from the Austrian capital to Poland. According to reports, 3.691 sunglasses, 1.750 smartphone cases, 1.261 pairs of shoes, 150 charging cables and 50 headphones were confiscated. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that these were counterfeits of branded products manufactured in the People's Republic of China.

“Product piracy and thus the violation of copyrights is not a trivial offense. Counterfeits not only damage our economy, but also pose a danger to consumers. With well-thought-out risk analyzes and targeted controls, our customs regularly manage large seizures like this,” said Finance Minister Magnus Brunner.

Such large-scale attacks are comparatively rare in Austria. Both the manufacturers and the dealers of counterfeit products know very precisely which routes their shipments can be routed to avoid being confiscated. As soon as the products have arrived in the EU and have been “waved through” or have not been recognized as counterfeits by customs officers, it is often very difficult to find them afterwards. It is an open secret that these often end up in the logistics centers of large mail order companies and are sent from there to end customers on behalf of Chinese retailers as part of fulfillment orders.

The major trading platforms are well aware of this problem and are also responding to reports from customers, authorities and brand owners, but there is repeated criticism that this is happening far too slowly. It may also be that you earn money from every sale and every shipping order.