Caught in transit

EUROPEAN Union customs officers have the right under EU law to confiscate and permit the destruction of counterfeit goods, even if they have been made, and are to be sold, outside the European Union, the European Court of Justice has ruled. Its judges were considering a case brought by American clothing manufacturer Polo/Lauren, which had requested that Austrian customs officials seize consignments of counterfeit T-shirts, fraudulently bearing its branded trade mark. A cargo of 633 Polo T-shirts was subsequently seized by customs officers in Arnoldstein and temporarily detained in a customs warehouse in Linz. They had been supplied by Dwidua, an Indonesian company, and were being sent across EU member state Austria, in transit to a Polish buyer, Olympic-SC. Polo/Lauren applied to the Landes-gericht, (Regional Court), of Linz for an order prohibiting Dwidua from selling the goods bearing trademarks and authorising Polo/Lauren representatives to destroy the detained T-shirts, at Dwidua’s expense.