$250000 fine for counterfeiting Harry Potter books

A Russian entrepreneur has been fined $250000 for illegally printing copies of the Harry Potter books by British author J.K. Rowling. The rights to publish this series in Russia are held by the Makhaon Publishing House.

The court found that between December 2018 and April 2021, the Kurgan resident organized the production and sale of 43,620 counterfeit copies of the books without permission from the copyright holder.

The businessman was found guilty of illegally using copyrighted materials on a large scale and was sentenced to 2 years of suspended imprisonment with a 2-year probation period. He was also ordered to pay a fine of ₽22,376,000, equivalent to about 258000 US dollars.

The counterfeit books, which were printed in Kurgan and seized in St. Petersburg, were deemed unauthorized copies.

Despite the man’s appeal to overturn the sentence, the court upheld the decision of the suspended imprisonment and the payment of compensation.