Counterfeit goods in EU: Italy alone accounted for over 70 percent of all detentions
In 2025, over 196 million counterfeit items with an estimated value of 6.3 billion euros were detained in the EU. These figures come from a joint report published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD). This represents the highest number of detentions ever recorded by EU enforcement authorities. The figure is 67 percent higher than in 2024 and 29 percent above the previous record set in 2023, with data covering both external EU borders and the internal market.
Other frequently detained items include “games”, “clothing” and “cigarettes”
By product type, “recorded CDs/DVDs” (including music and film releases, TV box sets, retro games and application software) remained the most frequently seized counterfeit goods in 2025, accounting for almost 30 percent of all detentions.
Almost one in five seized items consisted of “toys”. Meanwhile, the high number of intercepted “labels, tags and stickers” points to their potential use in assembling and completing counterfeit goods, suggesting that some products may be finished directly within the EU.
Other frequently detained items include “games” (including electronic consoles), “clothing” and “cigarettes” (including e-cigarettes and vaping devices).
Italy alone accounted for over 70 percent of all detentions
Within the internal market, Italy alone accounted for over 70 percent of all detentions, well ahead of France (6.2 percent) and the Netherlands (4.8 percent). By type of intellectual property (IP) right, trademarks were the most frequently infringed rights among seized goods (57 percent), followed by copyright (43 percent) and designs (7 percent).
The survey “Defending Made in Italy: Italian small businesses facing the phenomenon of counterfeiting”, conducted by the research department of the National Confederation of Crafts and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CNA), highlights how small businesses perceive counterfeiting as a concrete threat to competition, quality and the value of Made in Italy.
Returning to the EUIPO data, regarding results at external EU borders, Romania accounted for 43 percent of detained items, followed by Bulgaria and Italy. In terms of economic value, Spain recorded more than half of the estimated value of intercepted counterfeit goods, followed by Germany.
The record figures for 2025 highlight the scale and complexity of the counterfeiting phenomenon facing enforcement authorities across the EU. The growing volume of incoming goods, combined with fragmented supply chains, diverse transport methods and the expansion of e-commerce, makes counterfeit goods increasingly difficult to detect and intercept.