Period of the New Year and Christmas holidays is a time of intensified trade with goods on the market. More and more of this trade is carried out over the internet, and in particular over social networks, through which goods infringing IP rights are sold, especially brands protected by trademarks are violated to a huge extent.
In Serbia, a phenomenon has been noticed when the sale of goods is advertised, in particular clothes, perfumes, watches, etc, of well-known brands, which by appearance do not rise suspicion regarding quality or originality. However, popular prices considerably deviate from the usual prices in the regular channels of commerce, and that should be the signal for the consumers that the goods are not original, most probably, and that should also be an alarm for the buyers that such goods, most likely, violate intellectual property rights. The sale of this kind of goods represents a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia.
In a recent police action, police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Department for Fighting High Technology Crime from the Technical Administration, in cooperation with the Police Departments in Požarevac, Jagodina and Smederevo, arrested three persons under grounded suspicion that they performed criminal act of illegitimate trade and unauthorized use of another person’s brand and other signs for the protection of goods and services.
According to the statement given by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, dated December 17, 2024, criminal charges shall be raised against two female persons due to the existence of grounded suspicion that they used the internet to sell goods, in the quite a long period, without authorisation for trade, in particular, forged goods of well-known brands, achieving thus a turnover of above 400,000 euros.
On this occasion, we invite the citizens, during New Year and Christmas Holidays especially, to purchase gifts exclusively over the verified internet sellers and official supply chains in order to avoid counterfeited products, along with the negative consequences they bring, including health risks, safety risks as well as not to give support to the illegal production and distribution of forged goods.