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Receive information about goods stopped by customs as an interested party

If your goods are stopped on suspicion of counterfeiting, customs will inform you of the next steps.

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Procedure details

If goods are suspected of infringing intellectual property rights, the customs authorities can detain them at the border or suspend further clearance. This can prevent infringing goods from entering the internal market. The holder of these rights can apply to the customs authorities for this procedure.


If authorization has been granted and suspicious goods are found, customs will inform you as part of the customs clearance procedure. The rights holder can inspect the goods. This can be followed by various steps:

  • The goods will be destroyed under customs supervision if the necessary requirements are met. If the goods are in your possession or you have declared them, you can consent to their destruction. Your consent is also deemed to have been given if you do not object to the destruction within the deadline.
  • If you object to the destruction, the rights holder must initiate civil court proceedings to decide on the infringement.
  • If the infringement is not confirmed or the rights holder has not initiated civil court proceedings, the goods will continue to be processed or handed over.

In order to receive notifications and notices, your goods must have been stopped on the basis of an application by a rights holder for action by the customs authorities.

  • Required Documents

    You do not need to submit any additional documents.

You will receive notifications and decisions from the customs authorities via the inbox in the customs portal if

  • an application for action by the customs authorities has been approved and
  • your goods have been stopped on suspicion of an infringement.

The procedure is then as follows:

  • If the customs authorities identify suspicious goods,
    • they detain them or
    • suspend clearance.
  • The customs authorities will inform you of the facts. Within this period, you can agree or object to the destruction of the goods.
  • If you object to the destruction, the rights holder must initiate civil court proceedings. In this case, the goods will be held by the customs authorities until a decision has been made on the suspected infringement.
  • You will receive a notification informing you of the decision to destroy the goods.
  • Depending on the decision, the goods will be destroyed or released under customs supervision.

The following conditions must be met in order to be able to send and retrieve notifications and decisions online:

  • You must create or have created a business customer account or a citizen account in the customs portal.
  • When submitting a customs declaration, you must ensure that you provide the e-mail address of your business customer account or citizen account.

In addition, for the electronic retrieval of notifications

  • activate the consent for electronic notification of notifications by data retrieval in the customs portal and
  • have accessed the "Industrial property protection" service in the customs portal at least once.

Identification on the portal is possible via:

  • E-mail and password (limited scope of use)
  • ELSTER certificate (full scope of use)
  • New identity card (full scope of use)
  • BundID (full scope of use)

If the requirements for electronic delivery are not met, notifications and notices will be sent by post.

You will receive the information and notifications from the customs authorities free of charge.

You will receive notification that the goods have been stopped within one working day.

There are no indications or special features.

  • Objection to the detention of the goods
  • Objection to the decision to destroy
    • Detailed information on how to lodge an objection can be found in the decision.

Status: 18.06.2024
Editorially responsible for prodecure description: Bundesministerium der Finanzen
Source: Federal Portal