'Fake English Textbooks from China Worth 16.7 Billion Won Caught'

An importer who smuggled counterfeit Chinese children's English textbooks and illegally distributed them domestically has been caught.

Masan Customs under the Korea Customs Service announced on the 11th that Mr. A (31) was caught for violating the Customs Act and Trademark Act (smuggling) and was sent to the prosecution without detention.

Chinese counterfeit children's English textbooks seized by Masan Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service are displayed. Provided by the Korea Customs Service

According to customs, Mr. A disguised the counterfeit Chinese English textbooks as officially published textbooks from Hong Kong and sold each set (about 360 books) for 300,000 to 370,000 KRW.

The smuggled children's English textbooks are known to be popular among parents with children aged 4 to 9, as they are English books for preschool and elementary students published by a prestigious university press in the United Kingdom.

The genuine product price is 2,670,000 KRW, and customs authorities explained that Mr. A sold the counterfeit textbooks at about 90% cheaper than the genuine price.

In particular, Mr. A used methods such as creating private cafes to promote the products and recruit buyers, then shipped the counterfeit textbooks directly to buyers by listing them under each buyer’s name and address through list customs clearance to avoid customs crackdowns.

List customs clearance is a system that allows personal use items under $150 (or $200 if departing from the United States) to be imported into Korea without formal import declaration or paying customs duties, and Mr. A exploited this system.

When comparing the genuine product and the counterfeit textbooks smuggled by Mr. A, differences were found such as number markings like ‘3-19’ on the back cover of the counterfeit that do not appear on the genuine product, and different fonts used for each book in the set.

Above all, customs authorities emphasize that the counterfeit textbooks have not undergone testing or inspection to verify compliance with the common safety standards for children’s products under the “Special Act on Safety of Children’s Products” (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy notification), making it difficult to guarantee their safety.

Oh Sang-hoon, head of Masan Customs at the Korea Customs Service, said, “We plan to strengthen crackdowns to prevent goods that infringe intellectual property rights and threaten public safety from being illegally imported and distributed,” and added, “If you discover that hazardous consumer goods are being illegally imported, stored, or sold through illicit channels, please report it to the Customs Service’s ‘Smuggling Report Center.’”

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