And again Amélie Loiseau reaches for the knife. This time it’s an orange package, about one meter by one meter in size. The customs officer puts the cutter on, pulls it through and opens it: a bundle of colorful rubber bands, bed linen and a soccer jersey with the FC Barcelona logo, each individually wrapped in plastic wrap.
But the neon lights in the warehouse in Liège, Belgium, are mercilessly bright. Something’s not right, Loiseau murmurs, pointing to the blue and red stripes on the sleeve of the jersey. They are wider than the original, and the logo of the supplier Nike cannot be seen either. The customs officer puts the items back and puts a sticker on them saying: counterfeit. And: “Blocked by customs” – “Blocked by customs”. The name of a Chinese online retailer is on the packaging: Temu.