NEW BARRIERS TO COUNTERFEITERS
State Duma Proposes to Work Out a Nationwide Program
to Protect The Consumer Marekt From Counterfeiters

As a result of the parliamentary hearings held today at the State Duma, general approaches for government authorities, local self-administration bodies, associations of rights holders and consumer societies to combat the production and sale of counterfeit products on the Russian market have been worked out.

The proportion of counterfeit products sold on the consumer market remains very large. According to Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare), counterfeit food products make up over 20 percent of the market, and light industrial goods make up more than 30 percent. The audiovisual goods market, with a counterfeit share of 80-90 percent, saw only minor changes. Participants at the hearings found previous anti-counterfeiting measures to be insufficient.

The parliamentary hearings were initiated by the State Duma’s Committee of Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedure Legislation. Today’s meeting produced clear and targeted recommendations to federal, regional and local government authorities, as well as to local self-administrative bodies on the application of specific civil and criminal mechanisms to protect the consumer market from counterfeit products.

One of the key recommendations came from the Presidential Administration on creating a working group that would include representatives of relevant government authorities, local self-administrative bodies, associations of rights holders and consumers for development of a draft nationwide program to protect the consumer market from counterfeit products.

Moreover, the final document contains proposals for the State Duma to expedite passage of amendments to civil, criminal, administrative and customs legislation aimed at tightening responsibility for violation of intellectual property rights.

The Russian Federation government received recommendations to expand the Commission on Combating Intellectual Property Violations by including representatives of major rights holders associations.

"These recommendations are addressed equally to government authorities, associations of rights holders and consumers," said Pyotr Shelisch, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Committee of Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedure Legislation, who presided at the hearings. "Without these associations and their mobile control groups, it is impossible to effectively detect counterfeit products on the consumer market. We also put big hopes on developing a new initiative of bona fide trade organizations to voluntarily guarantee the legality of all products sold. We propose a sort of a social agreement between the government and society. Successful implementation of the agreement could lead to a significant decrease in the share of counterfeit products in Russia’s consumer market and a reduction in the size of damage resulting from them. The sale of counterfeit products is a very serious threat not only to rights holders and consumers but also to Russia’s economic development, public morals and international prestige."

The hearings were attended by representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Federal Customs Service, Rospatent, Rospotrebnadzor, the Union of Consumer Market Participants, the Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR), the Russian Anti-Piracy Organization, Rusbrand, IFPI, experts and lawyers from rights holders’ companies.