Barclays Premier League: Campaign to Counterfeit Goods

            The Premier League's brand protection team has new front that opened this week - it's the Premier League's campaign against counterfeit goods. They are working with the law enforcement in Spain raided warehouses in Majorca.

            Illegally traded goods are the focus of the campaign. In the past three years, the League has seized more than 300,000 counterfeit goods worth in excess of £4.3 million in the UK. Those goods can be reinvested back into the game and the grass roots as well.

            Even with all those figures, the Premier League is still focusing on raids on UK soil; stopping such goods at their point of entry into the market per se. Hence, with the co-operation of Guardia Civil, in Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and tax authorities in Majorca, a series of raids in Majorca produced the confiscation of more than 6,000 goods worth a total of €40,000 (about £31,800).

            The warehouses where the counterfeit goods were manufactured and stored for keeps and sales are the main target of the conducted raids. Among the goods that customs officers in Majorca confiscated were thousands of beach towels with Premier League club logos on them without permission worth €27,000.

"The Civil Guard is always ready to cooperate with foreign Police Agencies and Organisations to combat this type of crime affecting the Industrial Property worldwide," said captain Alcaraz, spokesperson of the General Civil Guard Department. "This time we are pleased to have collaborated with the Premier League to get this great result."

"We are pleased to be working closely with the Guardia Civil and customs officers in Spain to shut down the criminal operations of those who seek to profit by importing, manufacturing and selling counterfeit Premier League products," the Premier League said. "The Premier League will continue to work with enforcement agencies from around the world to stop those trading illegally at the expense of the supporters, the clubs and the game as a whole."

The growing enforcement of the League will embrace a number of planned raids in China this year to tackle the manufacture of goods that infringe the League and clubs' intellectual property rights - logos and trademarks.

(Source: Barclays Premier League official website)