IFPI Statement on European Commission's publication of 2005 Customs seizures of counterfeit goods

November 10, 2006

"Over 9.7 million pirate CDs, DVDs and cassettes were seized by customs at European borders in 2005, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. These figures point to the continuing threat of piracy to the creative industries in Europe. Some 53% of the pirate discs and cassettes seized were of Chinese origin, further demonstrating the importance of the EU maintaining pressure on China to improve its enforcement of intellectual property rights.

"IFPI estimates the overall value of the global traffic of illegal CDs at 3.5 billion Euros. An estimated total of 1.2 billion fake CDs were sold in 2005, meaning that more than one in 3 CDs sold worldwide is a pirate copy.

"Internet piracy continues to be a threat to the development of legitimate online services, with an estimated 20 billion songs illegally swapped or downloaded worldwide, showing the high rate of piracy on the Internet."

For more information please contact:
Francine Cunningham, IFPI European Office, tel.+32 (2) 511 9208