2200 Counterfeit Watches Seized in Majorca
Last June, during a routine surveillance operation, a delegate from the FH noted a disturbing increase in the number of counterfeit watches offered on street markets in Palma and in the main holiday centres on Majorca. Confronted with this situation, the brands concerned decided to organise a tough intervention designed to force the street vendors to stop trading and show greater discretion. In a sense, this operation was intended to call certain people to order. After all, it is intolerable for street markets to become no-go areas for intellectual property rights.

Two interventions were planned in agreement with the Guardia Civil. The first raid took place on 12 September in Son Servera (North of the island). The second on the very next day targeted the weekly market in Palma. The arrangements put in place functioned admirably and a detailed search was made of some fifteen stands. Over 2200 counterfeit watches were impounded and will be destroyed once the legal proceedings have been completed.

Some twenty agents were mobilised for the occasion, so proving the excellent cooperation which exists between the FH and the Guardia Civil. Of course, an isolated operation of this type does not attempt or claim to eradicate the counterfeiting which goes on in the Balearic Islands. However, the psychological impact exercised on street vendors by such raids is very real. Records concerning all of them are now kept at the central command headquarters of the Guardia Civil and the perpetrators will run a serious risk if they re-offend. If they want to continue to sell watches, they now realise which models they had better not touch.

Source: www.fhs.ch
October 2003