- Luxury Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton handbags could
soon be tracked by radio tags invented by the European Commission.
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- The commission claims that tags are needed to fight the
£315bn-a-year trade in fake and stolen luxury goods.
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- The initiative follows warnings about the risks of buying
counterfeit goods. Trading standards said last week that fakes were "back
with a vengeance" and warned that the industry was linked to crime
and drugs.
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- Supermarkets such as Tesco have already begun projects
to test radio tagging products. The stores say they would remove the tags
when people leave the till.
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- But the European Commission wants to go further. It has
patented a radio tagging device to be embedded into luxury items such as
Rolex watches, that can sell for £10,000 each.
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- The Commission says it intends to hand the technology
to police forces and customs organisations as an anti-fraud device.
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- But privacy groups warn that tagging could be used to
monitor consumers. "I would be uncomfortable myself," said Ian
Brown, director of the think-tank Foundation for Information Policy Research.
"It could start off in expensive items but filter down to other sorts
of devices."
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- EU officials admit the proposal is controversial. A spokesman
for Philippe Busquin, the EU Research Commissioner, insisted customers
be warned of tagged purchases and said the technology must comply with
EU privacy laws.
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=466412
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