Webinar AdHoc 02/2020 - European Intellectual Property Crime - Case Study: The Czech alcohol case

At an unspecified time in August-September 2012, two individuals — Defendant 1 RF and Defendant 2 TK (of Slovak and Czech nationality respectively) — made a poisonous mixture of methanol and ethanol and sold it to Defendant 3 JV, whom they knew to be a distributor of alcoholic beverages. Defendant 3 JV (a Czech national) then proceeded to distribute the harmful alcohol to others until it ultimately reached consumers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This case study examines a court case in the Czech Republic involving the unauthorised production and distribution of alcohol containing the toxic substance methanol between August and September 2012.The defendants’ illegal activities caused dozens of fatalities and numerous serious injuries, which caused significant public distress regarding the safety of alcoholic beverages in the country.

During the online seminar the following points will be covered:

• interconnections between the trade in counterfeit consumer products (in this case, alcohol) and public health and safety
• application of the public health and safety provisions of the Criminal Code in the Czech Republic to prosecute the offenders
• large unregulated alcohol distribution network in the Czech Republic that overlapped to an extent with the legal supply chain
• extensive response by Czech law enforcement, public health and other agencies
• the criminals’ modus operandi
• forensic science component of the investigation