More than 41 million fake and counterfeit products were stopped at EU borders last year.
According to a new report from the European Commission, potentially dangerous products such as medicines, toys and household electrical goods accounted for over a third of all goods intercepted.
Compared to 2015, there was a 2% increase in the number of articles intercepted last year, with the goods seized estimated to have had a total value of some €670 million.
Cigarettes accounted for almost a quarter (24%) of the articles detained by customs authorities. Toys were the second largest group (17%), followed by foodstuffs (13%) and packaging material (12%).
The main source of fake goods was China, which accounted for 80% of those seized.
Vietnam and Pakistan were cited by the Commission as the originating countries for large amounts of cigarettes, with Singapore the main source of counterfeit alcoholic beverages.
Fake clothing accessories tended to originate in Iran, while Hong Kong topped the table for counterfeit mobile phones and most counterfeit medicines came from India.
These fake goods pose a real threat to health and safety of EU consumers and also undermine legal businesses and state revenues, the European Commissioner responsible for Customs and Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, explained.
Co-operation between law enforcement authorities should be strengthened and risk management systems upgraded to protect the EU from goods infringing on intellectual property rights, he added.
The Commission confirmed that, in more than 90% of cases where goods were seized, they were either destroyed or legal proceedings were initiated to determine an infringement of EU law or as part of criminal procedures.
The Report on EU Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights: Results at the EU Border 2016 can be found here.
