The European Parliament has approved in principle a directive criminalising across the EU the counterfeiting and pirating of goods, a serious problem regarding cosmetics and perfumes. MEPs however excluded patent rights abuse from its scope and also decided its minimum criminal punishments should apply only to deliberate and commercial counterfeiting.
A parliament spokesman explained: “Piracy committed by private users for personal, non-profit purposes is therefore excluded.” Nonetheless, the agreement in principle is one of two major hurdles to be cleared before the directive comes into force; the other - approval by EU ministers.
The proposed directive says serious counterfeiting crimes committed by a criminal organisation should incur maximum penalties of E300,000 and/or four years' imprisonment. Today, maximum fines for violating EU intellectual property rights range from £586 in Greece to £67,000 in the Netherlands. Maximum prison sentences run from three months in Greece to ten years in Britain.