The European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats, or EMPACT, is a comprehensive strategy for the European Union’s struggle against prepared and serious international violence.
From information exchange to training and shared administrative actions aimed at dismantling criminal networks, member states and several EU institutions, bodies, and agencies collaborate on a variety of fronts to maintain internal security. & nbsp,
Organized and major international crime harms both people and society at large, causing significant economic harm. & nbsp, Criminal networks are frequently very complex, so any strategy with the goal of reducing violence must be both multidisciplinary and multi-agency in order to make the struggle effective and efficient.
While the average consumer’s perception of intellectual property ( IP ) crime is typically not one of grave wrongdoings, it is actually connected to other serious crimes like online and offline fraud, online identity theft, forced labor, tax evasion, and, in some cases, even the financing of terrorism.
This” soft” form of crime, as it is frequently believed, depends on numerous actors to create, put together, repackage, relabel, and distribute goods. The scammers operate on and across continents without giving any consideration to health, human rights, or environmental issues. & nbsp,
The volume of international trade in counterfeit and pirated goods was estimated to be as much as US$ 464 billion, or 2.5 % of global trade, in 2019, according to a joint report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development( OECD ) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office( EUIPO ).
Meanwhile, up to 5.8 % of EU imports — up to€ 119 billion($ 134 billion ), or counterfeit and pirated goods— were imported into the country.
These numbers are important, resulting in annual losses of billions of dollars in taxes and reasonable product sales, as well as hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, not to mention things that are more difficult to quantify, like harm to a company’s status or competitiveness.
A rough estimate of the amount of fake goods entering or leaving Southeast Asia in 2017 was$ 36.4 billion. To create calculations more accurate, more unified concepts and data collection techniques used among Southeast Asian nations are still lacking.
More than ten years ago, the EU introduced EMPACT as a member-state-driven initiative to combat coordinated and severe international crime, including IP offense. Since then, it has grown to be an ongoing tool with an annual policy cycle of four years.
Threats and danger objectives are identified in each period, and strategies for addressing them are developed. Actions are then taken and successes are evaluated.
The document includes EU organizations like Europol and the EUIPO, as well as rules police and customs officers from member states. Since the EU lacks a common criminal code, EMPACT has made it possible for cross-border law enforcement to collaborate in order to address the increasingly transnational and yet transcontinental nature of IP violence.
115 fraudulent cosmetics and fragrance, 1.2 million fake car parts, 100 kilograms of illegal drugs and 2 million medical products, and 320, 000 fake clothes and accessories were arrested and taken as a result of EMPACT operations in 2022, among other things. The counterfeit goods that were seized were valued at€ 42 million.
There is room for improvement even though the value of the international trade in fake and pirated products has remained large and stable over the past ten years, at an average of about 2.5 % of all industry.
Through a variety of government-to-government assistance programs, the EU has been assisting non-EU nations in advancing IP rights security and police. For instance, the IP Key South-East Asia job focuses its enforcement efforts on capacity-building, sharing the most recent enforcement best practices, and establishing networks of cooperation with regional federal law enforcement authorities.
In the meantime, non-EU nations from all over the world are welcome to participate in EMPACT businesses if they want to stop the creation and distribution of fake and illegal items.
The names and objectives of these activities vary. Operation Elektron, for instance, deals with bogus electronic devices, while Operations Aphrodite engages in illegal physical and online trade in phony cosmetics, and Operations Fake Star involves fake goods that violate well-known brands.
The fight against IP offense and all other arranged and major international crime is a never-ending effort that requires the full support of all important authorities and the general public.
Less Internet violence improves safety, business profitability, economic wealth, and security while also improving environmental protection. It also makes people safer.