Do not give pirated goods at Christmas

pirated goods Christmas CustomsChristmas Gift. Photo: Pixabay.com

Do not give pirated goods at Christmas

Large amounts of pirated wares from online stores, that are not serious, are daily sent to Norwegian consumers. Customs, the Consumer Ombudsman and the Patent Office fear that there will be record breaking number of pirated gifts under the Christmas tree this year.

 

Almost half of Norwegian consumers are going to buy Christmas presents online this year, and an increasing amount choose to use foreign online stores, according to figures from Virke and Response Analysis. Unfortunately, many of the stores sell pirated copies.

Now Norwegian Customs, Consumers ombudsman and Patent office warn against buying pirated goods.

Consumers takes the blame

The customs office controls a large number of packages from abroad and often reveals pirated goods.

– The criminals behind the pirated items send it to the consumer. Thereby they bypass the regulations and it is the consumer who has to take the blame if you receive a product you do not know the quality of, says senior consultant at the Customs Office, Elisabeth Nettum .

Pirated products are products no one are aware of the origin. They are manufactured without inspection and approval and may contain substances and materials that may be dangerous.

– If you have ordered pirated goods, you have purchased a product that may be dangerous. You have no guarantee and may have paid a lot for an item that is sold as something that it is not, says Nettum.

Not serious online stores

The challenge for the consumer is that many of the sites appear as being professional.Consumer Ombudsman, Elisabeth Lier Haugseth, recommends online buyers to verify whether the stores they shop from are trustworthy.

– Look for contact information, check the URL’s and pay heed to other people’s experiences. Most have a limited budgets for gifts and does not want to waste money on fraud or risking to give something that is dangerous, she says.

Health and safety risk

In order to raise the awareness of online buyers, thousands of mail packages across the country will therefore be stamped with information about the risk involved in buying pirated goods.

– It matters what the cream we apply to our the skin contains, what the children’s toys are made from, or whether an electrical product complies with safety standards, says senior adviser in the Patent Office, Hedvig Bengston.

Organised crime

A lot of people are surprised when they learn about who are behind pirated goods.

– Europol and various UN agencies have documented links to criminal networks that also deal with drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking, says Bengtson.

Do you want to know more about pirated goods? Then check velgekte.no, here you will find 6 tips to avoid pirated goods.

 

© Tolletaten.no / Norway Today