KW Shoes Imports From China And Vietnam Rise, Customs And Excise Waits For Official Recording From Brand Owners

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise at the Ministry of Finance (DJBC Kemenkeu) has opened its voice regarding responding to the phenomenon of increasing sales of counterfeit shoes (KW) which are widely circulated on social media, especially those from China and Vietnam.

Director of Communication and Guidance for Customs Service Users Nirwala Dwi Heryanto said that his party has its own role and procedure in handling goods suspected of violating intellectual property rights.

He explained that his party could only take action if the brand rights holding company had registered its trademark officially through a record process, namely recording Intellectual Property Rights (HKI) data such as brands and copyrights into the customs database of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise.

He added that after the brand was recorded, his party could supervise the imports of related goods.

"When it comes to CIPTA rights, yes, regarding CIPTA rights, it means that we have rules, we have a special unit that handles it. So if it's a matter of CIPTA rights, customs are passive So a company that holds the rights of the brand, he must register, be corrected As long as he is from there, recorded there, we will follow, participate in supervising the imports of goods that have been registered with the brand," he said in Media Briefing at the Customs Headquarters, Thursday, September 4.

He admitted that several companies had registered their trademarks and submitted requests for Customs and Excise to supervise the counterfeit goods in circulation.

However, he conveyed that for shoe products or footwear, until now no company has made an official record.

"If my shoes haven't been, my shoes haven't been Shoes yet, aren't they footwear? But if it's like PCB, Schneider already, Goldband is all cool, right, because if it's like footwear, I'm afraid there are brand holders, there are also those who import parallels, parallel imports like earlier, you know, here there is a single Mercedes Benz agent. But there are imports from the general team as well, those who import Mercedes Benz, right," he said.

Nirwala also explained that in the case of products such as shoes, there are complexities in itself due to the practice of parallel imports. For example, even though there is an official single agent of a brand, there could be other parties who legally import the same product from abroad.

According to him, in conditions like this, without any records, Customs and Excise does not have a legal basis to detain these items.

"Yes, only in this case, as long as he does not report or record himself in the record, yes, we cannot take action," he said.

He also mentioned that in collaboration with brand owners, Customs and Excise is often given training and information to recognize the characteristics of original and mock goods, including in terms of packaging.

"Yes, and usually when we work together, we are also taught, sir, you know the characteristics, from the packaging, right? If we joke like people on TikTok, there are many who sell motorbikes, you know, don't want to without this, this," concluded Nirwala.