This report was prepared by the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate, under the leadership of Marion Jansen, Trade and Agriculture Director, and John Drummond, Head of the Trade Policy division, together with the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, led by its Director Patricia Escudero, at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
At the OECD, this study was conducted under the auspices of the Working Party on Countering Illicit Trade (WP-CIT). 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 would like to thank experts from the OECD countries and participants at several seminars and workshops for their valuable assistance. Special expressions of appreciation are extended to George Agius from Malta Customs, Chris Mabelitini from the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP), Riikka Pakkanen from Finnish Customs, Marta Castillo-Gonzalez and Jannik Grooten from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Travis D. Johnson from the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), Phil Lewis them the UK Anti-Counterfeiting Group, and Juna Shehu from Indicam.
Liv Gudmundson and Michèle Patterson 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.