LoveItaly

that you could be fined about $4,053.00 by the Italian authorities. This has happened in Venice especially, per an article in USA Today.

It probably will not happen but it could happen...as Italy apparently is trying to crack down on the sidewalk vendors. It appears that the government in northeast Italy are taking it more seriously than in Rome and southern Italy.

Anyway, just a post to make those who want to buy a knockoff item aware that they could be fined more by the Italian government then if they had paid the price for a legitimate product.

MissPrism

I was amused at the sheer cheek of those handbag sellers in Venice.
They were sitting outside Fendi, Gucci etc. selling copies of the bags that were displayed inside.

Billygoat

I just wonder how they are going to police it. Some of those fakes are pretty convincing.

Are they going to eye up women and decide that the rest of their clothing and shoes aren't expensive enough to match their designer handbag?

kappa

Recent discussion on Tripadvisor.com.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...ce_Veneto.html

LoveItaly

Billygoat, I don't buy knockoff items so I don't know the answer to your question but I assume if a person is "caught" buying a knockoff item that is when the legal problem occurs.
The USA Today article related some incidents where tourist were fined.

Dick

It doesn't seem fair to be fining visitors such ridiculous amounts.

After all, Italy has "allowed " the widespread selling of knockoffs in the past. It would make more sense to crackdown on the vendors which sell their goods openly.

nytraveler

That's what the johns always say when they're picked up along with the hookers. If there were no market there would be no sellers.

Dick

nytraveler,

I'm not defending the johns but I disagree with your analogy.

The vendors in Venice, Florence, etc openly advertise their goods. A better analogy would be to a NY peddler with pushcart. No need to punish the buyers when the sellers are so open.

Also, a john might be charged with solicitation ( a crime) buying from a street vendor is not illegal.

LoveItaly

Hi Dick, Italy does have a law that makes it illegal to buy counterfeit goods. They just have not really enforced it but evidently they are starting to. About the vendors...I completely agree with you...they need to be arrested and punished in accordance with the law.

I posted to alert travellers here that if they do buy these knockoff items they COULD be fined, especially in NE Italy.

TexasAggie

Hi LoveItaly,

The last time I was in Florence I visited the outdoor leather "market" near Basilica San Lorenzo. I don't think those items were knockoffs. Do you know?

Robespierre

First of all, who wants to pay extra to display some clown's name on his or her clothing and accessories?

And second, what kind of a message does buying a <i>knockoff</i> send? &quot;I can't afford to buy some clown's overpriced crap, so I got this imitation crap instead.&quot; What a mentality.

Can you say <b><i>poseur</i></b>?

bellastar

An interesting discussion, reminding me that some fodorites live in a much, much higher moral plane than many common folk who stoop to buy these lookalike items, which are illegal, yet sell briskly in the streets of Manhattan, and are enthusiastically bought by LARGE numbers of working women who can't afford the real thing.

The tables are always crowded, and I don't notice many guilty looks amoung the buyers.

The streets around my office in midtown swarm daily with this openair marketplace. Most of my co workers have bought these items at one point or another.

If our police use their time arresting and vigorously prosecuting all the French African immigrants who make up the majority of the sellers, I wonder who will be looking after our security interests and dealing with truly serious crimes?

Wish the real-world were that simple.
I may have sinned at some point by purchasing (and enjoying) one of these items myself, I'm not ashamed to say. Since I can't afford real Prada, Gucci and Fendi, I make do however I can. So lock me and my seller up, please! We are shameless and cheeky!

elaine

I'd like to interject here, that most of the sidewalk vendors selling bags and books from carts and tables set up on the street are licensed vendors, according to the law. Not all, but most. The absolutely illegal and unlicensed vendors are the guys (cousins in practice, if not by blood, to the peddlers in Venice) who display their knockoffs on sheets spread out on the sidewalk, or who show items for sale from briefcases or trash bags. They are always looking over their shoulders, and will quickly close the bag or case, or tie up the sheet and move on, if they detect a cop coming along.

elaine

sorry, I left out the detail that I was referring to New York City.

bellastar

Quite true elaine, those are the fellows I've bought from, many of them are from Senegal, and the cat and mouse game they play (along with many of the vendors with tables, who don't all have licenses) has been going on here in NY since I can remember! I'll admit that I work in a part of town where this is common practice.

TexasAggie

What I was referring to in Florence isn't close to the true vendors who spread their merchandise on a towel on the sidewalk... the leather market in Florence is made up of little outdoor carts with a variety of brands of leather merchandise. I've never seen anything purporting to be a Gucci, etc. though. Just lesser known Italian brands of leather goods.

nytraveler

Dick -

Sorry - per the first post it IS illegal to buy these goods in Italy. So my analogy is perfectly apt.

(Just because buying some things is illegal - and not others - doesn;t make the first any less a crime. Otherwise why would it be illegal to buy marijuana - but not a hot dog?)

logos999

Within Europe, you can import conterfeit goods afaik up to a value of &euro;175. It still is illegal, but tolerated by customs. If you posess conterfeit merchandise worth more than &euro;175 when crossing inner EU borders and happen to be controlled by customs (which rarely happens nowadays), you will be fined. You biggest risk is having those products when arriving from outside the EU.

LoveItaly

Hi TexasAggie, I have never seen items trying to be a knockoff at the leather market. Italy has a lot of immigrants and they sell their wares laid out on the street, or whereever. They sell knockoff items that try to imitate Prada, Gucci etc.

I have never purchased anything so never even thought about customs, that is interesting.

BTW, I recently read that Venice is now fining people that dangle their feet in the canals and eat food in prohibited places but not sure of the details. Guess Venice is trying to crackdown on behavior that is against their laws.

nonnafelice

I think there are several reasons Italy is cracking down so hard on the knockoff trade, besides the fact that there must be a lot of economic pressure from the Guccis and Pradas to do so. For one thing, I understand that organized crime is actually behind a lot of the trade -- the poor immigrants who are out there selling the stuff are just pawns in the game where most of the money goes to the Mafia or whoever. Also, the street marketers are avoiding taxes and license fees -- i.e, cutting into govt revenue. I guess the govt's hope may be that if the word gets out among tourists that they are liable for such stiff fines, it will be an effective deterrent.

Donna Leon's latest wonderful Guido Brunetti mystery, &quot;Blood from a Stone,&quot; centers on the illegal street trade and will give you a lot of insight into this situation.