Seoul Customs awarded International Enforcement Agency of the Year after huge seizure of fake items.

The Premier League has presented Seoul Customs with its inaugural International Enforcement Agency of the Year award for seizing over 400,000 fake items arriving on a shipment from China.

The haul, with a street value of £4.6million, contained counterfeit Premier League badges along with fake kits and badges from various Premier League clubs. The Chinese manufacturers involved were aware of the illegality of such activity and attempted to conceal their operation by only accepting orders from frequent customers via phone calls or directly from their website.

This is the single largest seizure since the inception of the Premier League’s Anti-Counterfeiting Programme. Formed 11 years ago, it has seized over 1.9million fake items worth £22million.

The Programme has also seen the Premier League lead the way in terms of sharing best practice in dealing with counterfeiting, and holds an annual ‘Football Against Fakes’ conference. The event is held to raise awareness of counterfeit issues faced by stakeholders within the football industry.

This year the fifth instalment of the conference takes place today (Weds 5th Sept) at the Emirates Stadium, where more than 150 Enforcement Officers from around the UK will be in attendance to see presentations from the Premier League, its clubs, enforcement authorities and anti-counterfeiting experts.

A Premier League spokesperson, said: “We have made huge developments in tackling counterfeiting since creating our Programme more than a decade ago, and this seizure is the largest we have seen so far. We want to protect fans from being ripped off and a shipment like this shows the ongoing challenge we face.

“We thank Seoul Customs for their hard work and efforts in ensuring that more than £4million worth of counterfeit products don’t make it to market.”