In 2009, European Authorities seized 118 million articles of counterfeit goods from entering the union.

The largest category of counterfeit good was clothing, with 27 percent of all seizures being fake clothing.

64 percent of all counterfeit goods seized was from China, a 10 percent increase in the amount of goods seized in 2008.

Source: “EU reports growth in fake goods from China,” BBC News, July 22, 2010.

Authorities in the Philippines seized $121 Million (5.6 Billion Philippines Peso) worth of counterfeit goods in 2009.

In the first half of 2010, police seized $30 Million (1.4 Billion Philippines Peso) worth of counterfeit goods.

Source:  Abigail L. Ho, “Value of seized counterfeit goods may top P5.6B,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 19, 2010.

The European Central Bank reported that 387,000 counterfeit banknotes were removed from circulation in the first six months of 2010.

The most removed counterfeit Euro was the 50 euro bill, which accounted for 42.5 percent of all counterfeits removed, followed by the 20 Euro bill, which accounted for 41.5 percent of all counterfeit removed.

Source:  AFP, “Number of fake euro banknotes falls,” Google News, July 19, 2010.

In 2009, British American Tobacco reported that counterfeit cigarettes costs the company $120 Million (93 million Euros).

Source: Associated Press, “EU, BAT cooperate against illegal cigarette trade,” Google News, July 15, 2010.

The smuggling of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes creates losses in revenue to the Europe Union of up to $12 Billion (10 Billion Euros).

Contraband cigarettes are legitimate cigarettes that have been smuggled into the country without the payment of taxes. Counterfeit cigarettes are fake cigarettes where no money is paid in taxes or the a legitimate business.

Source:  Associated Press, “EU, BAT cooperate against illegal cigarette trade,” Google News, July 15, 2010.

In 2010, out of a total of 130,000 registered Internet cafes in China, roughly 80,000 cafes have never bought legitimate video distribution systems, meaning that they are showing pirated content.

Around 30 percent of Internet cafe customers in China watch movies on the computers.

Source:  Mike Clendenin, “Beijing Cracks Down On Piracy,” InformationWeek, July 14, 2010.

Piracy of video content in China is estimated to cost $1.4 Billion a year.

Source:  Mike Clendenin, “Beijing Cracks Down On Piracy,” InformationWeek, July 14, 2010.

Authorities in Malaysia seized $1.09 Million (3.5 Million Malaysian Ringgit) worth of counterfeit goods in the first six months of 2010.

Source: “RM3.5mil in fake goods seized this year,” Malaysian Star, July 13, 2010.

According to an official with Interpol, $1,000 in seed money to start up the manufacturing of counterfeit prescription drugs can lead to potential revenue of $450,000.

In comparison, $1,000 invested into producing heroin will lead to $20,000 in revenue.

Source: “Fake prescription drugs surpass heroin earnings,” San Francisco Choricle, July 11, 2010.

Between 2007 and 2010, pharmaceutical company Pfizer has spent $3.3 million on legal fees and investigations into preventing the counterfeiting of Viagra.

From 2004 to 2010, the company has seized about 58 million counterfeit Viagra pills from reaching the public.

Source: Simeon Bennett, “Pfizer: Civil Suits for Drug Counterfeiters,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 8, 2010.