FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – On December 10, investigators with the Florence County Sheriff’s Office and the SC Secretary of State’s Office conducted an inspection of goods up for sale at the Florence Flea Market and found numerous items were counterfeit.
The market is located at 4001 East Palmetto Street in Florence. According to officials, several booths offered falsely labeled name brand purses, watches, shoes, perfume, belts, hats and other apparel.
According to the press release from Major Michael Nunn, the items were labeled with counterfeit trademarks including Casio, Nike, Versache, Fendi, Gucci, Coach, Ralph Lauren, Polo, Dolce & Gabanna, Ugg, True Religion, Abercrombie & Fitch, Clinique, Ferragamo and North Face. The total retail value of the items seized was estimated at $142,190.
“We remain committed to working with our State and local partners to protect the legitimate property rights of these product manufacturers and our consumers who pay money for name brand items,” Sheriff Kenney Boone said. “More importantly, most of these items are made in foreign sweat shops with child labor, so the argument that these are victimless crimes is simply untrue.”
Secretary of State Mark Hammond said “Counterfeiters do not pay taxes, meaning less money, in this instance for Florence County schools, hospitals, parks and other social programs.”
The International Anticounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) estimates that counterfeiting costs U.S. business between $200 billion to $250 billion annually, and results in the loss of over 750,000 American jobs.
