Counterfeiting: Italia seizes 80 per cent of the counterfeit goods confiscated in the EU market

Eight out of ten counterfeit goods seized on the EU’s internal market are intercepted in Italia. In 2025, the Italian authorities intercepted 80.2 per cent of the items seized by police and supervisory authorities in the countries that provided the data – approximately 140 million out of 175 million.

These account for 73.9 per cent of the estimated value, approximately 3.4 billion out of 4.55. Further behind are France (7 per cent), the Netherlands (5.4 per cent) and Spain (4.2 per cent): together with Italia, these four countries ‘dominated’ the volume and value of seizures, according to the report, accounting for almost 97 per cent of the items.

This is the figure that emerges from the annual report by the European Commission and EUIPO on the protection of intellectual property, which shows the highest level ever recorded. In the internal market, the 175 million items represent a 71 per cent increase on 2024 and exceed the 2023 record by 27 per cent.

Taking customs, police and supervisory authorities together, the number of items seized totalled over 196 million, worth 6.3 billion euros. In 2024, the figure stood at 112 million, worth 3.8 billion, whilst in 2023 – the year of the previous peak – it was 152 million.

By type, CDs and DVDs took first place on the domestic market for the second year running; this category includes music, films, TV series box sets, retro video games and software. The category accounts for 32.8 per cent of seizures, down from 40 per cent in 2024. Next come toys with 19.5 per cent, followed in third place by labels and tags, which have risen from 2.1 per cent to 13.4 per cent. These are components which, when applied to unbranded goods, transform them into counterfeits ready for sale.