Fake Lipton Tea, Nescafe Leak Into EU, Hurting Unilever, Nestlé

Low costs in shipping and packaging allow counterfeiters to apply their skills beyond luxury goods to ordinary products, including tea, shampoo or soap. Some counterfeit toothpaste contained chemicals found in anti-freeze, and imitation teabags include sawdust or dyed wood chips. One factory in Pakistan with 20 people made a ton of counterfeit tea each day. With the internet easing ways to find customers and high-quality printing technology, such counterfeiting has become a global problem. High-quality copied packaging serves as the disguise for problem products that can lead to public-health risks or cause consumers to lose trust in brand-name products. With millions of containers entering ports every day, custom agents have their hands full, often relying on suspicious shipment documents to detect fraudulent goods, reports a Bloomberg.com article. Nations are increasing the penalties for counterfeiting, and companies have hired their own investigators to stop a problem that could increase distrust over international trade. – YaleGlobal