The report was prepared by Piotr Stryszowski, Senior Economist and Florence Mouradian, 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, under the supervision of Stéphane Jacobzone, Acting Head of Division, OECD and Nathan Wajsman, Chief Economist, EUIPO. The authors wish to thank the OECD experts, who provided valuable knowledge and insights: Rachel Bae, Morgane Gaudiau, Javier Lopez Gonzalez, Evdokia Moïse 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 provided. A special expression of appreciation is given to George Agius from Malta Customs, Phil Lewis from the Anti-Counterfeiting Group in the UK, Gerhad Marosi from the Austrian Customs, Henk Molegraaf from the the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD) and Riikka Pakkanen from the Finnish Customs.
Raquel Paramo, Eleonore Morena 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.