"Request to Replace with Easy-to-Peel Labels" Police and Fire Supply Company Caught for 'Origin Mislabeling'

A company that fraudulently supplied low-cost Chinese products as domestic goods to public institutions such as the police and fire departments was caught by customs authorities.

Seoul Customs of the Korea Customs Service announced on the 25th that it had identified Mr. A (in his 60s) for violating the Foreign Trade Act (damage to origin labeling) and sent him to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office without detention.

Provided by Seoul Customs Service, Korea Customs Service

According to Seoul Customs, Mr. A is suspected of supplying over 170,000 items (worth about 1.8 billion KRW) of Chinese-made gloves, waist belts, bags, and other products as domestic goods to frontline police agencies and the Fire Agency from 2019 to 2023.

During the supply process, Mr. A imported goods from China through a company (Company B) under the name of an employee working with him or a third-party company (importer), stored them in a logistics warehouse in Gyeonggi Province, removed the origin labels (MADE IN CHINA) attached to the products, and fraudulently supplied them to public institutions as if they were domestically produced.

Public institutions enter into procurement contracts for certain items such as clothing on the condition that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) directly produce the products, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of domestic SMEs and support their business stability.

Winter gloves supplied to the police by Mr. A with altered country of origin are seized and displayed. Provided by Seoul Customs Service, Korea Customs Service

Despite knowing these procurement contract conditions, Mr. A was confirmed to have supplied low-cost Chinese products to public institutions by falsely representing them as directly produced in order to gain unfair profits by lowering the supply price.

In particular, Mr. A showed meticulousness by requesting the Chinese manufacturers to exchange the origin labels for materials that peel off easily and to use labels that do not leave marks after removal, facilitating the removal of origin labels.

A Seoul Customs official stated, “Deliberately damaging or falsely labeling the origin is a serious crime that takes away market opportunities and jobs from honest domestic small and medium manufacturers,” and added, “Customs will strengthen crackdowns to prevent such acts from occurring.”

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