Italy seizes counterfeit Labubu toys in Rome anti-counterfeiting raid

Counterfeit Labubu has moved far beyond isolated knockoffs. Rome’s Guardia di Finanza seized more than 1,000 illegal children’s products from a store in the Anagnina area, and the haul included fake Labubu figures alongside Pokémon, Spider-Man and One Piece goods.

The raid hit a retail setting aimed at children and young collectors, not a back-room shipment. That matters because the items were counterfeit rather than licensed merchandise, and the enforcement action removed them from circulation after officers found them on sale. Mixed-brand shelves like this are a common counterfeit tactic: stack names people already trust, keep the packaging busy, and hope a buyer does not slow down long enough to check what is actually being sold.

For Labubu buyers, the warning signs are concrete. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has said authentic Pop Mart Labubu dolls have a holographic sticker, a scannable QR code and, on newer editions, a UV stamp. It also warned that fake versions can pose choking risks, and that deep discounts can be a red flag. If a shop is offering several major franchises at suspiciously low prices, the bargain is usually the danger signal.

Rome is not an outlier. In Palermo, authorities seized more than 10,000 fake Labubu soft toys and reported seven people, including a toy-shop owner. In Brescia, officers took about 897 counterfeit Labubu plush toys along with more than 3 million school-supply items that lacked required safety markings. Police in Sannio later seized roughly 300 counterfeit Labubu plush toys from two stores, and officers in Porto Recanati confiscated Labubu among 3,200 toys taken from the market.

The pattern follows Labubu’s rise. Pop Mart’s 2024 results showed revenue of RMB 13.04 billion, up 106.9% year on year, and said The Monsters, the IP that includes Labubu, became the company’s biggest and generated about RMB 3 billion. That scale has made Labubu a prime target for fake supply chains, and the Anagnina seizure shows how quickly those knockoffs can surface in ordinary storefronts across Italy.