By Anna McLauchlin - 8th March 2004
MEPs are set to vote on a law aiming to stamp out fake goods on EU markets, from traditional perfume and clothes to pirated DVDs and CDs.
If adopted, the law will force national governments to adopt deterrent measures against pirates such as being able to seize suspicious bank accounts and force offenders to pay damages to victims of piracy.
Member states will also have to ban any machinery used to forge security devices which make consumers think goods are authentic, allow trade associations to launch lawsuits and withdraw fake products from the market at the offender's expense.
Representatives from member states and the European Parliament have worked together to produce a joint proposal on intellectual property rights which serves as a compromise to the commission's draft law presented in January last year.
The contentious issue of criminal sanctions against counterfeiters has now been scrapped at the request of EU capitals who insisted there was no place in an internal market law for enforced criminal penalties.
And the law would now be restricted to commercial fraud only, meaning that people downloading music or films from the internet for private use will not come within its scope.
According to the PSE (European socialists), counterfeit goods account for around €2.6 billion in lost VAT in the UK alone.
The European Commission hopes MEPs will adopt the joint draft proposal on Tuesday so that EU governments can approve it at the next meeting in April and avoid a second parliamentary reading.
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