Some questions of criminal liability for illegal circulation of counterfeit products in the member States of the Eurasian Economic Union
The need for the implementation of the study due to the fact that currently different sectors of the economy of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the share of illicit trafficking of industrial products meets overall global level and ranges from 5 to 30% (https://customsforum.ru/news/business/manturov-nezako-nnyy-oborot-promyshlennoy-produktsii-ot-5-do-30-545325.html). This not only undermines the stability of the economy of the EEU, the national budget systems, but also creates in some cases a threat to the security of the health, economic security of all States belonging to the EEC. An integral part of any national system of counteracting the illegal turnover of industrial products is criminal law about responsibility for the most dangerous forms of illegal trafficking of counterfeit goods. The study is based on the results made by the author and by other researcher’s analysis of the criminal legislation of States-members of the EEU from liability for use of objects of copyright, related rights or intellectual property. The study allowed to conclude that there are significant differences in the approach of the legislators of States, members of the Union not only to criminalize the General and special forms of illicit trafficking of counterfeit goods, but also to establish minimum and maximum penalties for similar acts. These differences, according to the author, have no criminological reason and it should be eliminated by unifying the common elements of crimes connected with illegal circulation of counterfeit goods, and penalties for the respective crimes. Such unification implies the provision is not identity, but only comparability of the most common forms of trafficking counterfeit goods and punishments for them (within the same category of severity of crimes). Legislators of the EEU member states can use the results of the study in order to ensure a coordinated criminal policy of these member states in the fight against the most dangerous manifestations of intellectual piracy and trafficking in counterfeit, adulterated and substandard goods. Key expected consequence of the publication is to increase efforts of the EEU member states on the formation of common approaches to criminalization and penalization of socially dangerous forms of trafficking counterfeit as well as counterfeit and substandard products The article is addressed primarily to legislators of the EEU member states, the EEU authorities, law enforcers in the fight against economic crime, faculty and law students.