Lancashire Police report that they are working with Morecambe Sunday Market owners and Trading Standards Officers to drive home the message that counterfeit goods will not be on sale.
The market has been the subject of recent seizures of counterfeit goods, in particular DVDs and CDs, but since discussions have taken place there has been noticeable improvements, police report.
What they say
Community Beat Manager for Morecambe central Pc Neil Pigott said: “We realised that there was a problem on the market with counterfeit DVDs so we all got together round the table to put an action plan into place. We consulted the market owner, the land owners, trading standards officers and also the Apollo Cinema management as this practice had a pronounced effect on their takings. The market owner has spoken with the traders and agreed protocols with the backing of trading standards officers and ourselves. There has been a common agreement that copy DVDs in particular will not be sold and this has been a significant step forward. Morecambe Sunday market is a huge draw to the resort and the public can be reassured that they can enjoy the shopping experience the market has to offer.”
Trading standards
Jim Potts, Chief Trading Standards Officer of Lancashire County Council, said: "We are pleased to be working with the market organisers to combat the sale of counterfeit goods. Research shows 90pc of pre-release pirate DVDs are poorly filmed in cinemas using camcorders and consumers who buy these DVDs get an illegal, poor quality product which often is incomplete."
