In a way, stuffed toys were where it all began. When a passenger from Thailand arrived at Perth International Airport in September 2023, Australian Border Force officers stopped him. The passenger had declared that they were traveling with commercial goods and were supposedly headed to stalls at the Perth Royal Show. More than 1,400 items with distinctive Pokémon branding, such as hair clips, pencil cases, key rings, and plush toys, were found inside the luggage. It didn’t appear that anyone was taking this seriously. That contributes to the story’s current level of interest.
That type of seizure was the end of things for years. After holding the goods and collaborating with rights holders to verify that they were counterfeit, Customs would either destroy or forfeit them. The importer turned to leave. Other than the inconvenience of misplacing a suitcase full of goods, there is frequently no conviction, no fine, and no true deterrent. The system is primarily focused on confiscation rather than punishment, and counterfeiters appeared to be more aware of this distinction than the majority of consumers.
That has either changed or is currently changing. The new regulations are scheduled to go into effect on November 20, 2026, after the Customs Legislation Amendment (False Trade Marks Infringement Notices) Bill 2026 was approved by both houses of Australia’s federal parliament in May and received Royal Assent soon after. The main idea is fairly straightforward: it is now a strict liability offense to import goods bearing false trademarks. Customs no longer needs to provide evidence that an importer suspected or knew the toys were phony. Legally speaking, intent is no longer nearly as important as it once was.
It is replaced by a system of financial penalties built on top of the seizure powers already in place. If someone is found importing goods with counterfeit markings, they may be prosecuted and fined up to $19,800, or they may receive a quicker $4,950 infringement notice. The corporate multiplier raises the maximum prosecution penalty for businesses to $99,000. The burden of proving an honest and reasonable mistake of fact, which is derived from current criminal code provisions, now rests with the importer rather than the government.
It’s important to consider why Pokémon in particular keeps appearing in these tales. Counterfeiters almost always target trading cards and toy lines based on well-known characters. Demand spikes around new releases, the packaging is instantly recognizable, and consumers—especially younger ones at events like the Perth Royal Show—may not be closely examining holograms or print quality. Counterfeiters are aware of this. In a sense, the product advertises itself.
It is difficult to overlook the scope of this legislative change. During the 2024–2025 fiscal year, Australia’s Border Force seized more than 700,000 individual counterfeit goods, which would have been worth more than $35 million if they were real. According to estimates from the OECD and EUIPO, counterfeit and pirated goods accounted for about $467 billion, or 2.3 percent, of global trade in 2021. In 2023–2024, Australia’s own counterfeit market was estimated to be worth close to $5 billion. A toy seizure in Perth begins to appear less like an isolated incident and more like a visible piece of something much larger moving through supply chains in the face of such numbers.
Beneath all of this is a question of fairness. People are generally uncomfortable with strict liability, and for good reason—it transfers risk to importers who might not have realized their supplier was taking short cuts. Reputable Australian companies that source from foreign producers—many of whom are in China—may now be subject to fines for trademark violations that they did not personally cause. It is genuinely unclear if this pressure only affects smaller importers who lack the resources to thoroughly inspect every shipment, or if it also fairly trickles back to the actual counterfeiters.
It appears that the days of counterfeit Pokémon merchandise getting past customs as a low-risk bet are coming to an end. The question of whether this will result in fewer fake Pikachus appearing at toy stores the following year is a different one, and Australian authorities won’t be able to provide an answer until the new regulations have had time to take effect.
