This report was prepared by the OECD Public Governance Directorate, under the leadership of Elsa Pilichowski, Public Governance Director and Martin Forst, Head of the Governance Reviews and Partnerships division, together with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), under the leadership of Christian Archambeau, Executive Director, and Paul Maier, Director of the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights.
At the OECD this study was conducted under the auspices of the Task Force on Countering Illicit Trade (TF-CIT). The study was shared with other OECD committees with relevant expertise in the area of trade, regulatory policy, and public sector integrity.
The report was prepared by Piotr Stryszowski, Senior Economist and Morgane Gaudiau, Economist at the OECD Directorate for Public Governance jointly with Michał Kazimierczak, Economist at the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights of the EUIPO and Nathan Wajsman, Chief Economist, EUIPO. The authors wish to thank the OECD experts who provided valuable knowledge and insights: Julio Bacio Terracino, and Nick Malyshev from the OECD Public Governance Directorate, and Silvia Sorescu from the OECD Trade Directorate.
The authors would also like to thank experts from the OECD member countries and participants of several seminars and workshops for their valuable assistance. Special expressions of appreciation are given to Riikka Pakkanen from Finnish Customs, George Agius from Malta Customs as well as to Phil Lewis from the UK Anti-Counterfeiting Group.
Raquel Páramo and Andrea Uhrhammer provided editorial and production support.
The database on customs seizures was provided by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and supplemented with regional data submitted by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The authors express their gratitude for the data and for the valuable support of these institutions.