This chapter focuses on the growing misuse of small parcel shipments as a vehicle for distributing counterfeit goods that infringe on Swiss intellectual property rights (IPR). It offers a detailed analysis of customs seizures involving consignments of fewer than ten items—a shipment profile increasingly prevalent in the context of e-commerce.
The rapid growth of online retail and digital marketplaces has significantly transformed global trade patterns. While e-commerce offers major economic opportunities, it has opened new channels for illicit trade in counterfeit goods. Criminal networks have adapted quickly, exploiting fast, fragmented, and low-value consignments to move fakes across borders with minimal risk. These small parcels are not only less likely to be inspected due to their low declared value and volume, but they frequently fall below national thresholds for customs scrutiny.
For enforcement authorities, this shift presents serious operational challenges. The sheer volume and speed of e-commerce-driven shipments strain inspection resources, making it increasingly difficult to identify and intercept counterfeit goods. Traditional risk-based profiling systems are less effective in this environment as traffickers deliberately conceal illicit items within innocuous-looking personal shipments. This shift has enabled counterfeiters to reduce exposure while maintaining high distribution efficiency, making the small parcel model a preferred method of operation.
The misuse of small parcels for trafficking counterfeit goods has been documented in an earlier OECD/EUIPO report (OECD/EUIPO, 2018[8]) and continues to intensify. Globally, the share of customs seizures involving small parcels increased from 61% in the 2017–2019 period to nearly 80% in 2020–2021. This trend is more pronounced when it comes to counterfeit goods infringing Swiss IPRs; in 2020–2021, 94% of all such seizures involved shipments of fewer than ten items (Figure 2.4). These figures underscore the degree to which Swiss-branded products, particularly high-value goods such as watches, are trafficked via fragmented, low-volume channels that are designed to evade enforcement.
Further sectoral analysis reveals important differences in the use of small parcels across product categories (Figure 5.1). In most sectors targeted by counterfeiters, small shipments represent the vast majority of seizures. The most extreme case is the Swiss watchmaking sector, where 97% of all seizures involved small parcels. This reflects at once the high unit value of Swiss watches and the ease with which they can be discreetly packaged and shipped. The clothing sector (classified under HS codes 61 and 62/65) also shows significant use of small parcel trafficking, although to a slightly lesser extent with 74% of seizures involving fewer than ten items.
The only notable exception to this pattern is the machinery and electronics sector. In this domain, larger shipments remain more common, likely due to the size and nature of the goods involved which make concealment in small parcels less feasible. Yet even in these sectors,there is growing evidence that counterfeiters are exploring ways to break bulk shipments into smaller consignments to reduce detection risk.
In sum, the small parcel model is a key vector for the distribution of counterfeit goods infringing Swiss IPRs. Its growing use represents a structural challenge for enforcement systems, requiring new approaches to risk management, data sharing, and customs co-operation. Enhanced co-ordination between customs, postal operators, and e-commerce platforms will be essential to close the gaps exploited by traffickers and to safeguard the integrity of legitimate trade.
