Coupang Responds to Claims of "Counterfeit Watch Sales Boom" Saying "SNS Is a Hotbed of Illegal Activity" (Comprehensive)

Watch Industry Cooperative Raises Concerns Over Sales Decline of Small and Medium Watch Companies
Coupang Refutes, "Dedicated Team Uses AI Technology for Proactive Monitoring to Block Counterfeit Products"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Despite appeals from the domestic watch industry, it has been pointed out that Coupang is still selling counterfeit (fake) famous watches such as Rolex. Coupang countered that it is proactively blocking counterfeit products through a dedicated team of over 100 personnel and innovative technology.

The Korea Watch Industry Cooperative announced on the 4th, "There are as many as 684 types of counterfeit famous watches being sold on Coupang, with watches priced from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of won being sold for 200,000 to 230,000 won, and the losses suffered by domestic fashion watch companies competing in similar price ranges are estimated to reach billions of won." According to the Watch Industry Cooperative, the reason counterfeit famous brand watches are still sold online is due to loopholes in the Trademark Act. The current Trademark Act only punishes sellers who sell counterfeit goods, and online commerce intermediaries operating distribution networks are not held responsible. Accordingly, the National Assembly is also working on revising the Trademark Act to eradicate the sale of such counterfeit products, led by Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Kyung-man.

The cooperative stated, "Small and medium-sized watch manufacturers who honestly produce and sell products are facing even more difficult management conditions amid the already challenging COVID-19 situation," and insisted, "The sale of counterfeit products must be stopped immediately."

In response, Coupang said, "Unlike other open markets, we continue innovation with Rocket Delivery through direct purchasing," and countered, "The Watch Cooperative is distorting facts by claiming that Coupang, which has a low proportion of external sellers, is neglecting counterfeit products." An analysis of related data from the Korean Intellectual Property Office shows that efforts by the e-commerce industry and related institutions to block counterfeit products have caused a balloon effect, with counterfeit sellers moving to SNS or cafes. Coupang pointed out, "The Watch Cooperative is ignoring this reality and only slandering Coupang, which has the lowest detection rate of counterfeit products."

Furthermore, Coupang explained that it has established a dedicated team of over 100 members operating a 24-hour monitoring system. It added that it uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyze product prices to predict the possibility of counterfeiting and analyzes product images to determine authenticity. Pre-monitoring before product registration is also being strengthened. For some products with high counterfeit frequency, Coupang takes proactive measures such as verifying distribution history with sellers before registration to judge authenticity and safety. A Coupang official said, "Recently, most counterfeit product sellers are secretly trading through direct messages (DM), which are difficult to monitor."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.