Korea Customs Service Cracks Down on Dongdaemun Distributors and Sellers of Chinese 'Jjakttung' Counterfeits

Provided by Korea Customs Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A company that smuggled counterfeit goods from China and distributed and sold them in large quantities in Dongdaemun has been caught.

The Seoul Regional Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced on the 4th that it has apprehended two importers who smuggled counterfeit products of 14 types of overseas luxury brand trademarks from China and Hong Kong and distributed them domestically, on charges of violating the Trademark Act and Customs Act.

These companies used Chinese intermediaries and the Chinese mobile messenger WeChat to order counterfeit clothing, shoes, bags, and other items, then disguised them as personal consumption goods and imported them as express cargo.

In particular, to evade customs crackdowns, the companies meticulously used 11 phone numbers of family and acquaintances and 5 delivery addresses to disperse the import of counterfeit goods over about 700 occasions.

Through this method, the companies smuggled and distributed over 5,000 items (worth approximately 1.2 billion KRW) domestically over the past two years, of which about 30% were confirmed to be A-grade counterfeit products made in China.

The smuggled counterfeit goods were displayed as samples among trademark-free genuine clothing, so-called ‘bonded clothing,’ in Dongdaemun stores operated by each company, and when regular customers wanted to purchase the items, they were shipped by courier.

It was also revealed that counterfeit products were uploaded to mobile clothing wholesale apps and sold to retailers.

A Seoul Regional Customs Office official said, “Customs detected seven cases of smuggling and distribution of counterfeit clothing worth about 27.4 billion KRW last year, and about 12% of these were confirmed to have been distributed domestically through stores located in Dongdaemun,” adding, “We plan to strengthen monitoring and crackdowns on high-risk counterfeit goods distribution areas.”

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