Monthly Archives: July 2017

From: Bristol Post

Trading Standards ‘actively monitoring’ Bristol Facebook selling pages for people selling fake goods

Two men in Bristol have just been caught and prosecuted for selling fake Adidas and Beachbody products

By Tristan Cork

Trading Standards investigators have warned people in Bristol they are ‘actively monitoring’ Facebook and other selling sites online for counterfeit goods, after two men were caught flogging fake Adidas trainers and Beachbody products.

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When his house was raided by Trading Standards, they found 70 suspected counterfeit items, along with 10,000 illegal cigarettes, branded up to be Mayfair. They found he operated an office in a room in his Brislington home, and investigators found receipts and customer orders suggesting a ‘lucrative cash sales side’ to his enterprise.

In a long-expected announcement, the FDA Center for Tobacco Products announced plans to consider (1) “lowering nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes to non-addictive levels,” i.e. banning nicotine (2) regulating flavors—including menthol—in all tobacco products including e-cigarettes (3)  and “foundational rules to make the product review process more efficient, predictable, and transparent” for all stakeholders. The complete FDA News Release is found here. Below are excerpts.

The FDA plans to begin a public dialogue about lowering nicotine levels in combustible cigarettes to non-addictive levels through achievable product standards. The agency intends to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to seek input on the potential public health benefits and any possible adverse effects of lowering nicotine in cigarettes.

Editor’s Note: For information about the State of California’s lawsuit against GRE, see here. For information about GRE’s lawsuit against the Canadian government asserting Counterfeit Cigarettes: An Enforcement F…that government failed to stop contraband cigarettes, see here. For information on the role of areas of graduated sovereignty in facilitating the illicit trade, see here.

From: Bloomberg News

A First Nation tobacco company wields its sovereign status in court against Big Tobacco and revenue-hungry governments.

By David Voreacos and Andrew Martin

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From: MSN Money

Cialis

Cialis, another popular erectile dysfunction drug, has overtaken Viagra as the world’s most counterfeited medication. The problem is so acute, the US Food and Drug Association issued a warning last year after a shipment of fake Cialis was intercepted in the mail system (image shows counterfeit Cialis and Viagra pills and boxes displayed at a news conference at the Sherman Block Sheriffs Headquarters in Los Angeles).

SuperMatch

Kenyan cigarette brand SuperMatch is the most counterfeited brand in the world in terms of the actual number of units confiscated. While the health risks of smoking are bad enough, fake tobacco products have been found to contain human excrement, asbestos and dead flies.

Editor’s Note: The following is translated from the original Portuguese.

From: Época

The lost war against trafficking on the border with Paraguay

Faced with bold, rich and creative drug traffickers, the authorities are unable to stop the entry of drugs from Paraguay

ALINE RIBEIRO E HUDSON CORRÊA (TEXTO), ADRIANO MACHADO (FOTOS)
Officers from the Border Operations Department at dawn, on a roadside patrol. The traffickers have multiple strategies to circumvent surveillance (Photo: Adriano Machado / ÉPOCA)

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