CBP seizes counterfeit speakers in Philadelphia

   U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Philadelphia this week ensured that a shipment of counterfeit speakers never will reach consumers.
   The knocked-off 1,626 Edison Professional speakers, if authentic, had a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $253,572, CBP said.
   The speakers, which originated in China and were manifested as “loudspeakers,” arrived in New Jersey’s Port of Newark in four containers and were trucked in-bond to CBP’s centralized examination station in Philadelphia on June 13, said Stephen Sapp, a CBP spokesman in Philadelphia.
   Three containers held 975 Edison Professional M7000 speakers and one contained 651 Edison Professional EP-365 speakers. The containers originally were intended to be trucked from New Jersey to an address in Los Angeles, CBP said.
   The agency’s officers at the examination station suspected the speakers were counterfeit due to the “poor quality of the packaging and markings” on the boxes.
   On July 1, CBP’s Electronics Center for Excellence and Expertise in Los Angeles further verified the Philadelphia field officers’ findings by determining the speakers’ Bluetooth markings were faked.
   “In addition to substantial theft suffered by the lawful trademark holders, these counterfeit speakers may also pose a threat to American consumers because of the potential for counterfeit electronics to overheat and ignite,” said Casey Durst, CBP’s director of field operations in Baltimore, in a statement.
   If the speakers had been legitimate, CBP would have released them to the importer. They now will be destroyed, Sapp said.
   In fiscal year 2018, CBP, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), seized 33,810 goods shipments with intellectual property rights violations. The suggested manufacturer’s retail price for these goods, if authentic, would have been about $1.4 billion. ICE-HSI also arrested 381 individuals, obtained 296 indictments and received 260 convictions related to intellectual property crimes in fiscal year 2018.
   CBP noted that more than $761 million, or 54%, of last fiscal year’s intellectual property rights-related shipments that were seized originated in China.