PHILADELPHIA – Well that didn’t take long. Transnational criminal organizations are quick to counterfeit any popular consumer merchandise and Bryce Harper’s Philadelphia Phillies jerseys are no exception.
$44,000 in counterfeit Bryce Harper
Philadelphia Phillies jerseys.
Since Major League Baseball’s opening day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Philadelphia have seized 314 counterfeit Harper jerseys and detained many more. If authentic, the jerseys would fetch a cool $44,040.
The seized jerseys arrived in six express delivery shipments. The largest shipment contained 204 Harper jerseys, the remaining parcels contained between 18 and 25 jerseys. All parcels arrived from Honk Kong and were destined to addresses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Counterfeit sports jerseys are made with substandard fabrics, and sometimes consist of dangerously flammable textiles. Counterfeit sports apparel also deprives trademark holders of revenue, American workers of jobs, and helps fund other nefarious revenue schemes.
“Transnational criminal organizations counterfeit popular consumer products and Mr. Harper’s Phillies jersey is among the hottest consumer goods selling today, so it was a good bet that we’d start seeing counterfeit Harper jerseys,” said Casey Durst, CBP Director of Field Operations in Baltimore. “Customs and Border Protection officers will continue to work closely with our trade and consumer safety partners to identify and seize counterfeit merchandise, especially those products that may potentially harm our nation’s consumers.”
CBP protects businesses and consumers every day through an aggressive Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) enforcement program. Importation of counterfeit merchandise can cause significant revenue loss, damage the U.S. economy and threaten the health and safety of American people.
On a typical day in 2018, CBP officers seized $3.7 million worth of products with IPR violations. Learn more about what CBP did during "A Typical Day" in 2018.
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, number of IPR seizures increased 8 percent to 34,143 from 31,560 in FY 2016. The total estimated MSRP of the seized goods, had they been genuine, decreased to $1.2 billion from $1.38 billion in FY 2016. Read more 2017 IPR Enforcement Statistics.
As a result of CBP enforcement efforts, Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested 457 individuals, obtained 288 indictments, and received 242 convictions related to intellectual property crimes in 2017.
CBP's border security mission is led at ports of entry by CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations. Please visit CBP Ports of Entry to learn more about how CBP’s Office of Field Operations secures our nation’s borders.
Learn more about CBP at CBP.gov.