Want to buy counterfeit slippers? Visit Lithuania.
Been shopping for that fake Adidas track suit?
Lithuanian customs officers seized 184,000 counterfeit items in 2005 (Adidas, Puma, Nike, Prada, Burberry, Siemens, Ericsson brands, to name a few). Customs cited 47 cases in 2005 in which intellectual property rights were violated, double the amount discovered in 2004. The biggest consignments were 34,559 pairs of Puma-branded slippers and 22,800 Adidas-branded sportswear items. Also, during a sting operation called “FAKE,” 11,600 baseball caps labeled “NY” or “Yankees” were seized in the Vilnius Airport. Who would have thought American baseball could be so popular in Eastern Europe?