A casual glance at the powder blue jersey with the small round patch of England’s popular Chelsea Football Club likely wouldn’t raise suspicion.
However, closer inspection reveals the embroidered ‘B’ in Club is significantly smaller than the ‘B’ in Football along the bottom portion of the European football — or soccer, as we call it in the United States — team’s round logo.
That variation was an indication the Chelsea jersey and more than $1 million worth of other European soccer merchandise shipped into the Savannah Port last month on a container from China was counterfeit.
“You look at that Chelsea patch, and it just looks off,” said Steve Sapp, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “The last B is smaller than the rest, and that’s the kind of thing you often see with these counterfeit goods. Our investigators know the signs that these goods aren’t real.”
Customs and Border Protection agents April 11 seized the entire shipment of goods headed to an address in Chamblee, just northeast of Atlanta, about a month after the container arrived in Savannah.
Protecting the intellectual property rights of trademark holders is among the chief concerns for the agency that falls under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security.
“Trade in counterfeit and pirated goods threatens America’s innovation economy, the competitiveness of our businesses, the livelihoods of U.S. workers, the economic security of our country, and in some cases, the health and safety of consumers,” said Reginald Manning, CBP director of field operations in Atlanta. “Together with our enforcement partners, Customs and Border Protection continues to guard the nation’s borders against counterfeit products.”
Nationwide in 2013, the agency seized more than 24,000 shipments of counterfeit goods worth more than $1.7 billion; 67 percent of those seizures were shipped from China.
Fake apparel and accessories comprised about 35 percent of the total seized goods.
Sapp said sports apparel is often faked because authentic jerseys and other clothes typically carry a high price tag. They are often seized in large quantities just ahead of major sporting events like the Super Bowl or the World Series.
Those who find significantly cheaper products online likely know they will received illegitimate goods, Sapp said.
“People are always looking to save a buck,” he said. “If you know this jersey costs $100 and you find it online for $20, chances are pretty good it’s counterfeit, and you’re taking a chance it’ll be seized.”
People who are caught importing counterfeit goods can face criminal charges. However the importer of the illegal soccer apparel, who Customs and Border Protection did not identify, is not facing charges.
“This guy lost a boat load of money,” Sapp said. “... Federal investigators could come back later and charge him, but at this time he’s just losing a whole bunch of money.”
Customs and Border Protection agents are typically aware of the shipping patterns major trademark holders use. They know what the goods should look like, who typically sends them and where and when they’re likely to arrive.
When something comes into the country irregularly, like the shipment of soccer apparel that arrived March 12 in Savannah, it’s usually a red flag.
The shipment contained 390 cartons of soccer t-shirts, socks, shorts and other merchandise bearing logos from popular Union of European Football Associations including Chelsea, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Barcelona, Celtic, Chelsea, and Paris Saint-Germain football clubs.
Representatives from those clubs, who were sent samples of the goods from the container, verified the clothes were fakes, Sapp said.
It was not clear what would happen to the counterfeit apparel. Sometimes the trademark holders order the goods destroyed, but often they are shipped to needy parts of the world and donated.