DFWC & TFWA Anti-Illicit Trade Declaration – Duty Free World Council

Duty Free World Council and Tax Free World Association anti-illicit trade declaration

The global duty- and tax-free industry loses significant sales opportunities every year to illicit trade, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft. These criminal activities impact legitimate businesses 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 we sell.

The members of the Duty Free World Council (DFWC) and Tax Free World Association (TFWA) 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. Illicit trade in all its forms is a blight upon society. Its proceeds fund criminality, terrorism, and human trafficking, and prevent and deter investment in the brands of tomorrow.

Many retailers currently insist that suppliers have strict policies when it comes to issues such as environmental protection or human rights of workers and their suppliers and third parties. A further commitment on eradicating illicit trade is a natural extension of these policies.

DFWC and TFWA are calling upon all industry retailers and suppliers to sign up to a clear anti-illicit trade statement, and to encourage a similar declaration from their business partners that they also take a zero- tolerance approach to illicit trade.

These commitments by individual companies operating in the duty- and tax free industry are part of an industry-wide campaign to stop illicit trade in all its forms and to assert our credibility as one of the most secure and trusted retail channels in the world.

This is very much in line with the commitments already made by many industry stakeholders to the UN Global Compact, most notably the principle that all businesses should work against corruption in all its forms.

Commitment by duty and tax-free retailers

We declare our full support to the global fight against all forms of illegal and illicit trade and commit to assist the appropriate authorities in all relevant markets in their ongoing efforts against this heinous form of criminality.

Illicit trade in all its forms severely impacts the global duty- and tax-free industry through lost sales opportunities, and reputational damage and therefore it is our collective responsibility to work with enforcement agencies and governments to bring this to an end.

We commit to doing business with companies that have clear, unambiguous, and meaningful anti-illicit trade policies.

We declare our full support to the global fight against all forms of illegal and illicit trade and commits to assist the appropriate authorities in all relevant markets in their ongoing efforts against this heinous form of criminality. As a company we declare that we will never support, condone, or be involved in any form of illicit trade and that we comply with all applicable laws and regulations during the sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution of our products.

Current signatories