Counterfeit seizures in the EU hit a record in 2025. In a joint report published on 22 October 2026, the EUIPO and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) said more than 196 million counterfeit items, worth an estimated EUR 6.3 billion, were detained at the EU border and in the internal market that year — 67% more than in 2024 and 29% above the previous record set in 2023.
The most frequently detained goods were still 'recorded CDs/DVDs' — covering music and film, TV box sets, retro games and application software — at nearly 30% of all seizures.
Almost one in five items were toys, followed by games (including consoles), clothing and cigarettes (including e-cigarettes and vaping devices).
One category is worth singling out: the large numbers of intercepted 'labels, tags and stickers'. The EUIPO notes these may be used to assemble and complete counterfeits — meaning some products' final step may happen inside the EU, rather than arriving ready-made from abroad.
Detentions in the internal market and at the border show different geographies:
- Internal market: Italy alone accounted for over 70% of all detentions, far ahead of France (6.2%) and the Netherlands (4.8%).
- Border: Romania made up 43% of detained articles, followed by Bulgaria and Italy; by value, Spain represented more than half of the estimated worth of intercepted goods, followed by Germany.
By right infringed, trade marks were the most commonly breached among the detained goods (57%), followed by copyright (43%) and designs (7%); the three add up to more than 100% because a single consignment can infringe several rights at once. The EUIPO attributes the record to the sheer scale and complexity of the problem: rising volumes entering the EU, fragmented supply chains, varied transport methods and the expansion of e-commerce all make counterfeits harder to spot and stop.
On the response side, the EUIPO works through EMPACT (the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) on up to 10 operational actions against IP crime, and runs the IP Enforcement Portal (IPEP), where rights holders feed enforcement authorities information to identify fakes; the recent Joint Action Day Pirates 4 seized over 1.7 million counterfeit and undeclared items across Europe.
J&C recommends that brands exporting to or operating in the EU file a customs Application for Action (AFA) — valid for up to one year and renewable, with a Union application able to cover several member states — and load their authentication points and authorised channels into IPEP so frontline officers can compare quickly; given the in-EU assembly trend, watch for unusual flows of labels, packaging and stickers and pass leads to customs and platforms where needed.
Source: www.euipo.europa.eu
