There has been a major increase in the number of seizures of fake goods coming into Ireland.

Figures for 2018 show over 19,000 articles were seized by customs officials here.

That is up 50% on the previous year.

Other countries with a significant jump in rates included Hungary (up 2,039%), Slovenia (up 267%), Luxembourg (up 127%) and Portugal (up 95%).

Across the European Union, figures jumped from 57,433 in 2017 to 69,354 in 2018.

However, the total amount of articles detained actually fell compared to previous years.

The top products seized for infringing intellectual property rights were cigarettes (15%), toys (14%) and packaging material (9%).

Products for daily personal use in the home such as body care articles, medicines, toys and electrical household goods accounted for nearly 37% of the total number of detained articles.

Source: @EU_Taxud on Twitter

Almost 27 million articles were detained in 2018, with a street value of nearly €740m.

China continued to be the main source country for goods infringing intellectual property rights.

North Macedonia was the main provenance for counterfeit alcohol, while Turkey was the top source for other drinks, perfumes and cosmetics.

EU customs saw a high number of fake watches, mobile phones and accessories, ink cartridges and toners, CDs/DVDs, labels, tags and stickers from Hong Kong.

The main source for computer equipment was India, Cambodia for cigarettes and Bosnia and Herzegovina for packaging material.

Pierre Moscovici is the out-going EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs.

He said: "Customs officers across the EU have seen success in tracking down and seizing counterfeit goods that are often dangerous for consumers.

"Their job is made even more difficult by the rise in small packages entering the EU through online sales.

"Protecting the integrity of our single market and customs union, and effective enforcement of intellectual property rights in the international supply chain are also priorities.

"We need to continue stepping up the efforts against counterfeiting and piracy."

A previous study has shown that direct sales losses for EU businesses due to counterfeit goods amount to €56bn per year, corresponding to an employment loss of almost 468,000 jobs.

You can read the full European Commission report here