U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at the Port of Louisville in Kentucky recently seized 200 luxury watches bearing counterfeit Audemars Piguet trademarks.
Audemars Piguet is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches. Many consider the company one of the “Big Three” of Swiss watchmakers, along with Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. So counterfeiters, looking to capitalize on the company’s prestige, often manufacture and attempt to sell fake versions of their watches.
The shipment of counterfeit Audemars Piguet watches originated in Hong Kong and was en route to Illinois when CBP officers pulled the parcel for inspection. CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise, the organization’s trade experts, declared the timepieces inauthentic and then confiscated them for bearing counterfeit versions of registered and documented trademarks.
The shipment would have had a total manufacturer’s suggested retail price of more than $28 million if the watches were authentic…