Paris Police Are Cracking Down on Counterfeit Luxury Goods Ahead of the Olympics

Paris, we have a problem. 

As the French capital gears up to host the 2024 Olympic Games, police have been cracking down on the booming counterfeit market in preparation for the international sporting event. Back in April, officers descended upon Seine-Saint-Ouen, home to the city’s largest flea market, where they shut down 11 stores peddling fake luxury goods, Reuters reported. Altogether, they confiscated 63,000 knockoffs ranging from copycat Louis Vuitton handbags to Nike sneakers which led to 10 arrests.

“We’ve been working a lot ahead of the Olympic Games, there were a lot of operations carried out, with training over almost 18 months for operational agents, the police, customs, the gendarmerie, fraud prevention,” UNIFAB head Delphine Sarfati-Sobreira told Reuters. 

“And there were big, major operations, like a few weeks ago, the closure of more than 10 stores in the Saint-Ouen area, which is 500 meters from the Olympic village. Thousands of fake products were seized, to really clean up this area where there were a lot of counterfeits in circulation,” he added. 

Many of the summer Olympic events are slated to take place in iconic sites across The City of Light. The Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, for example, is where the Olympic Aquatic Center will be. The venue is set to host artistic swimming, diving, and water polo events, in addition to the closing ceremony. However, police have previously voiced concerns about fraudulent street vendors in the neighborhood.  

While Paris has long been considered the world’s fashion capital, France has been a part of an ongoing fake fashion battle for the past few years. In 2023, customs seized 20.5 million knockoffs, a whopping 78 percent increase on the 11.5 million products confiscated in 2022.

However, in the run-up to the Games, officials have been preparing for the crowds of fans who will arrive in the next few weeks—and the hordes of fake luxury goods that are likely to be circulating. This spring, UNIFAB helped train 1,200 customs agents to spot counterfeit Olympic-related merchandise, including clothing and Phryges, the official mascot. French authorities have also upped their enforcement efforts by enlisting 70 agents to monitor illegal activity online. If you plan on attending the big event, be sure to keep an eye out for scammers.