What to do if your haul gets seized by customs (not legal advice).
4 reasons why your package got opened:
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You got picked for a randomized spot check. It’s the same thing they do at airports. They take out random packages and open them. Did you know they automated this process at security checks and even plant fake x-ray scans in order to check how attentive the agents are?
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You declared your 10kg haul as $10 USD. Be reasonable.
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The agent fucked up the declaration. Either wrong information or wrong/illegal products.
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You got blacklisted because you had many seized hauls in the past (This is not a fact and just a conjecture based on experience of other users)
What happens after they open your shit:
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They quickly scan through your goods to check if they are branded or have tags on them. That’s why sometimes they overlook branded clothes with small logos or patterns that don’t have the brand’s name on it.
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They find branded goods and let the representatives of those brands know. The brand sends a dedicated LC guy to LC your stuff.
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LC guy confirms your goods as fake and lets customs agents know.
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LC guy also notifies the brand’s law firm that handles copyright infringements.
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Customs sends you a letter stating that your package got seized and will get destroyed until a certain date unless you file a complaint and can prove that it’s real.
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Law firm sends you a letter stating you will get sued if you don’t pay the 350 USD fine. The letter often arrives three to eight weeks later.
DON’T PAY THE FINE:
The law firm will not sue you unless you ordered a shit ton of bags. In my country for example, brands don’t sue people over one or two seized branded bags because they would lose the lawsuit every single time.
Here, they have to prove that you damaged their income and brand by ordering those goods, and also that it was you that ordered them.
This however, is not reasonable since you only ordered a single bag for your own use and not for resale. It’s a different case if you order 30 bags at once and get busted.
Then it’s obvious you wanted to resell them.
So just throw the letter away, no need to respond.
Why some branded products don’t get seized:
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Some brands don’t operate in certain countries. The big 5 (Gucci, LV, Hermes, Dior, Chanel) will almost globally seize your reps. However, if a brand (Balenciaga and Off-White for example) don’t operate at all in your country, chances are high that they don’t LC at customs. Why is that? Because the brands always have to pay a processing fee or every destroyed, LC’d piece. For some it’s just not worth it.
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Agents didn’t recognize your shirt/bag/whatever as a branded good. This happens if you buy a Gucci shirt with only snakes on it, but without a big “Gucci” logo on it.
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The brand doesn’t have any contracts with customs. Ever wondered why Supreme, Palace etc never get seized? Because for them it’s not worth it to have representatives in every country. Don’t worry about street wear reps getting seized.
Good luck and godspeed.
