47 Million Pirated ’80s Video Games Seized

A major operation by the Guardia di Finanza Torinocalled “Coin Up 80”led to the seizure of twelve thousand game consoles containing pirated 1980s video games, for a value of over 47 million euros. The investigations, coordinated by the prosecutor’s office of the Piedmont capital, were carried out between the end of 2023 and today in various provinces including Turin, Vercelli, Milan, Bergamo, Varese, Bologna, Verona, Venice, Naples, Caserta and Bariled to the discovery of devices that could be connected to televisions, in which over 100,000 data were illegally stored 47 million pirated video games, for lovers of “retrogaming”.

All the consoles were Chinese made and non-compliant. Nine people, all Italian, reported for the crimes of introducing into the State and trading products with false markings, fraud in the exercise of trade, receiving stolen goods and violation of copyright. The consoles were distributed through the websites of Italian companies involved in the illicit trade, which are based in the provinces of Turin, Napoli and Bari, or even through the physical network of sales points of some of the same companies, present inside shopping centers or through one of the largest global marketplaces. The consoles were also found to lack the CE marking and, for assembly quality, electrical non-conformity and presence of uncertified batteriesnot suitable to guarantee compliance with quality standards in terms of consumer safety.