The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 13-19:
The Department of Justice filed charges against 22 defendants over imports of counterfeit luxury goods from China, DOJ said in a news release. Six indictments and a criminal complaint were unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Aug. 16, it said. "The charges include conspiracy to traffic, and trafficking, in counterfeit goods; conspiracy to smuggle, and smuggling, counterfeit goods into the United States; money laundering conspiracy; immigration fraud and unlawful procurement of naturalization," DOJ said. Four of the defendants served as the importers for shipping containers full of counterfeit goods through the Port of New York/New Jersey, it said. "They fraudulently used the names, addresses and other identifying information of legitimate import companies and falsified the descriptions of the containers’ contents on U.S. customs paperwork associated with the containers of counterfeit goods." The goods, which include Louis Vuitton and Tory Burch handbags, Michael Kors wallets, Hermes belts and Chanel perfume, would have been worth more than $450 million if real, DOJ said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 6-12:
The ban on fish and shellfish harvested in the Upper Gulf of California in Mexico near an endangered species of porpoise is "effective immediately," the Court of International Trade ruled Aug. 14. The administration had argued that the regulatory process to create a certificate of admissibility, which involves multiple entities within the federal government, could not be done immediately (see 1808080005). "The Court discerns no merit in the Government’s suggestion that the import ban is not effective immediately," CIT said. "The Court reiterates that it is effective immediately."
The Justice Department charged a group of five individuals with running a major counterfeiting operation, including $70 million worth of fake Nike shoes, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a news release. Starting in 2016, Miyuki Suen, Jian Min Huang, Songhua Qu, Kin Lui Chen and Fangrang Qu are alleged to have imported "at least 42 shipping containers holding an estimated more than 380,000 pairs of sneakers from China," DOJ said. "These sneakers were manufactured to resemble Nike Air Jordans. Once these shoes arrived, the defendants added trademarked logos to the shoes, rendering them counterfeit. The defendants then stored the counterfeit Nike Air Jordans in multiple storage units and warehouses in New York City and elsewhere." The charges stemmed from information provided to ICE Homeland Security Investigations from a private investigative firm hired by Nike, the complaint said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 30 - Aug. 5:
A California state appeals court recently ruled against Proposition 65 labeling requirements for cancer-causing chemicals in cereals, finding Food and Drug Administration nutrition policy goals outweigh the state’s requirements that cereal manufacturers add warnings to their packaging. Acrylamide, a chemical caused by baking, roasting and frying carbohydrate-rich foods like cereals, is listed by California as posing cancer risks, but Post Foods, General Mills and Kellogg's do not have to add Proposition 65 labeling because the requirements are pre-empted by federal nutrition labeling law, the court said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 23-29:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is going over its options in response to a Court of International Trade preliminary injunction that requires the government to ban certain fish from Mexico (see 1807260039), a National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman said. NOAA, which houses the NMFS, "is reviewing the ruling from the Court of International Trade and determining next steps," she said. The court approved the preliminary injunction in a lawsuit over protecting vaquita porpoises. The CIT ruling said the government must "ban the importation of all fish and fish products from Mexican commercial fisheries that use gillnets within the vaquita’s range."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 16-22: