In Pisa in 2021 12,000 fakes seized: the war on counterfeiting becomes tech
Agreement between the Municipality and the Customs Agency: the police will be able to count on new technological means to combat abuses
PISA. Unity is strength. This is the meaning of the memorandum of understanding, signed yesterday morning, between the Municipality of Pisa and the Customs Agency. The goal is to fight even more forcefully the phenomenon of illegal trade in counterfeit goods. A turnover of thousands of euros that also involves Pisa every year. Leather goods, clothing, organizations and agri-food products are the sectors most affected by real unscrupulous people who place on the market, retail and online, products that are altered and harmful to the very health of the consumer. In the Sala delle Balearic, the signing of the document between the mayor of Pisa, Michele Conti, And Roberto Chiara, territorial director of the Customs and Monopoly Agency Dtv – Tuscany, Sardinia and Umbria.
A protocol that will allow an exchange of information between the Customs Agency and the municipal police of Pisa, as regards the customs database and in terms of professional and technological resources. The signature took place in the presence of the safety councilor, Giovanna Bonanno, from Pasquale Dioguardi, director of the Customs office of Pisa and of the commander of the municipal police of Pisa, Alberto Messerini. A protocol that is inserted on the road traced for some time by the municipal administration. “Counterfeiting – underlined the mayor Conti – is a phenomenon that our city also knows very well and has concerned, and concerns, through commercial illegal, tourist areas such as the Piazza del Duomo, and on which we have been engaged for some time with our forces to try to stem and a parallel traffic that escapes the legal channels ».
It is the data that speak clearly and make us understand the importance of this new synergy. In 2021, the municipal police, in the course of its fraud control and repression activities, seized 12,668 objects deriving from illegal trade, many of which were counterfeit and dangerous because they were made with materials harmful to health. While in 2020 the objects seized were 10,691. «An intense activity that confirms – explained the commissioner Bonanno – how the territory of Pisa constitutes a potential fertile market for the sale of illicit and counterfeit products, with repercussions for the economy and for public health itself. And precisely to consume this phenomenon even more, we have decided to sign the new protocol which will have a duration of two years, to promote at the same time the exchange of information and the culture of the conscious and legal “. The new technological means that will be made available to the municipal police and will make it possible to check the origin of the products, the provenance and the quality. On this occasion, a working table is set up with monitoring tasks and also for the analysis of fraudulent phenomena and joint permanent meetings will also be organized for interventions, in addition to collaboration in the planning of activities in the area.