Last Friday, the Customs Service had six cases with a total of 1,205 stopped Labubu dolls.
It will be more, we know that, says Martin Höglund at the Customs Service's press service, who cannot go further into how the dolls were found.
We have skilled people who have a nose for which packages can seem strange. You get a certain feeling for which ones they are and where they come from.
Two of the cases, 113 and 310 dolls, respectively, concern dolls that were stopped at the end of May and the beginning of June on behalf of the Consumer Agency. The dolls had been found to be hazardous and are to be re-exported by the importer.
If it is hazardous for people, we have an obligation to stop such goods from entering the EU market. We see it as a huge problem when it comes to toys, dolls that small children can come into contact with that do not meet the safety requirements.
Three cases involving a total of 609 dolls concern Labubus that were stopped in mid-August. The rights holders Pop Mart have announced that they are counterfeits and are therefore to be destroyed.
In one case involving 173 dolls that were stopped in mid-August, it is still being investigated whether they are counterfeit or not.
All the monster dolls have been stopped in the Gothenburg area.
Labubu was created by the Hong Kong-born illustrator Kasing Lung as one of several monsters in a series of books inspired by Nordic mythology.
Labubu was initially more of a side character in the series but quickly became popular.
It is described as a "small, kind-hearted creature with pointed ears and sharp teeth who always means well, but often fails in a comical way with its well-meaning attempts to help".
For Pop Mart, the dolls have been a goldmine like no other. In 2024, the company made a profit of 1.8 billion dollars, an increase of over 100 percent from the previous year. The sale of Labubu dolls alone increased by 726 percent, according to the New York Times.
