Controversy Over Giving Counterfeit Fountain Pens to Korean Red Cross Donors with 30 or 50 Blood Donations

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] It was recently revealed that the fountain pen sets provided as gifts to blood donation honorees by the Korean Red Cross were counterfeit. The controversy is spreading as so-called "fake" pens were given to individuals who donated blood 30 and 50 times.

The Blood Management Headquarters of the Red Cross announced on the 29th through a notice on its website that the "Lamy fountain pen sets" provided as gifts with the Gold and Silver Blood Donation Merit Awards from May 1 of last year to May 31 of this year were confirmed to be counterfeit.

The Red Cross awards blood donation merit medals to frequent donors, along with certificates and gifts. The merit medals are categorized by the number of donations: Silver Medal (30 times), Gold Medal (50 times), Honor Medal (100 times), Honor Grand Medal (200 times), and Supreme Honor Grand Medal (300 times).

The Red Cross stated, "After receiving complaints suggesting the gifts might be counterfeit, we verified the authenticity of the fountain pens and received a response from the German 'Lamy' headquarters confirming the pens were fake," adding, "We will replace and provide the 2021 merit award gifts by September." The number of honorees who received counterfeit fountain pens reaches 25,000.

The Red Cross explained, "Although we selected the supplier through an open competitive bidding process based on the National Contract Act and contracted for genuine Lamy fountain pens, the supplier delivered counterfeit products," and added, "We are preparing legal action against the supplier."

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