THE customs authority in Shenzhen has seized more than 95,000 pieces of goods that infringe upon the intellectual property rights (IPR) of the ongoing 2018 World Cup, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported Saturday.

On May 16, Shekou customs officers found a batch of digital TV set-top boxes marked with the “Russia 2018” logo during an inspection. The boxes were to be exported to a TV station in Albania.

Although FIFA (Federation International of Football Association) had granted the TV station the right to rebroadcast World Cup matches, it didn’t authorize the use of FIFA’s logo on the set-top box, meaning that the set-top boxes, which exceeded 28,000 units, had been produced illegally.

The boxes were valued at about 2 million yuan (US$301,222). This is also the largest case that Shenzhen customs has cracked since the launch of the Sino-Russian customs joint enforcement action on IPR protection in 2018.

In another case June 8, Shekou customs seized 1,200 counterfeits of the official soccer balls designated for the Russian World Cup.

The Shenzhen customs authority also seized 29,860 pairs of shoes printed with the World Cup mascot Zabivaka and “Russia 2018,” and over 4,000 T-shirts and hats with “FIFA World Cup Russia 2018” logos and the official emblem of the World Cup.

“These T-shirts and hats are very ordinary. The T-shirts are hard and rough, and the dyeing of the hats and the stitches are not elaborate. The pattern of the emblem is also blurry,” said a Huanggang customs officer.

It has been reported that since the joint enforcement action was launched in March this year, Shenzhen Customs has cracked four cases of IPR infringement on the 2018 Russian World Cup. The total value of the counterfeit goods has exceeded 2.3 million yuan. (Zhang Yu, Fu Xinyue)