Photo from UNIAN
Ukraine's State Fiscal Service (SFS) says the toughening of rules for imports of goods of well-known brands purchased by Ukrainians online outside the country is connected with the fight against counterfeit at the request of trademark holders or their authorized persons, according to the regulator's press service.
"Such restrictions are applied only if products are counterfeit or if their origin could not be verified," the press service quoted Director of the SFS Department for Customs Control Oleksiy Vasylenko as saying.
He also stressed that, according to the Customs Code of Ukraine, all arriving parcels are subject to mandatory vetting, and a trademark holder is allowed to check whether the product is original or not.
"In case of infringement, the goods are not allowed in the customs territory of Ukraine, but if the intellectual property rights are not violated, the trademark holder informs the customs about the possibility of further customs clearance of such goods," Vasylenko said.
In his words, such rules have been in use in Ukraine for many years.
"On the one hand, this protects consumers' rights to consume high-quality, original products; on the other hand, manufacturers' copyrights are safeguarded as well," Vasylenko added.
Read alsoUkrainian customs stop import clearance of incoming parcelsHe also dismissed reports that the customs had been instructed to bar individuals from importing goods to Ukraine if their trademark rights are listed in the customs registry.
"This does not correspond to reality, as customs authorities have never had such instructions from the SFS, either verbally or in written form," Vasylenko noted.
As UNIAN reported, the service for monitoring the data on Ukrainian companies' registration OpenDataBot, on Tuesday, May 30, disseminated information about the blocking by the Ukrainian customs of imports involving over 1,000 brands mentioned in the customs register, such as Adidas, Amway, Apple, Canon, Chanel, Chesterfield, Chevrolet, Chivas, Christian Dior, Coca-Cola, Contex, Dormeo, Electrolux, Lego, levi's, LG, Lipton, Honda, HP, Meizu, Mercedes Benz, New Balance, Nivea, Nokia, Opel, PlayStation, Redmond, Samsung, Sandora, Shell, Subaru, Xerox, Xiaomi, and other top brands.