DFWC & TFWA Anti-Illicit Trade Declaration

In July 2023, the Duty Free World Council (DFWC) and Tax Free World Association (TFWA), the representative organisations for the global duty- and tax-free industry, announced the launch of a public declaration on the global fight against illicit trade, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft. The declaration is part of the industry-led Duty Free: Trusted, Transparent, Secure campaign, launched in 2022.

Background

Illicit trade in all forms is a blight upon society. It funds criminality, terrorism, and human trafficking, and causes unfair damage to many industries, including the duty- and tax-free channel. 

Every year, the industry loses significant sales opportunities to illicit trade, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft.  These criminal activities impact legitimate travel retail businesses, who operate within one of the most tightly controlled and transparent supply chains in the world. 

The duty- and tax-free industry also suffers reputational harm when illicit goods are fraudulently mislabelled as ‘duty-free’ to add authenticity, which is now a global problem for many of the products the industry sells.  

DFWC and TFWA and their respective memberships take a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of illicit trade, and expect the same high standards from all stakeholders in the duty- and tax-free industry.  

The Declaration

The Duty Free World Council and Tax Free World Association Anti-Illicit Trade Declaration makes a clear, public anti-illicit trade statement, and encourages its signatories to seek a similar declaration from their suppliers that they also take a zero-tolerance approach to illicit trade.

The initiative intended to demonstrate to governments, regulators, enforcement bodies and the wider travel retail sector that signatory companies are fully aligned as a sector and fully committed to the elimination of all forms of illicit trade, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft.  

Current Signatories

If you are a member of the travel retail industry and wish to sign the declaration on behalf of your organisation, please contact us.