Special Crackdown on Illegal Imports via Overseas Direct Purchases During Singles' Day and Black Friday

The government will conduct a special crackdown on illegal imports via overseas direct purchases, timed to coincide with major international discount events.

The Korea Customs Service announced on November 5 that it will carry out a "special crackdown on illegal imports related to overseas direct purchases" at 34 customs offices nationwide from November 10 to December 31.

Overseas direct purchase items are piled up at the Incheon Customs Express Logistics Center in Jung-gu, Incheon.
Photo by Kang Jinhyung, Yeongjongdo

This special crackdown is being implemented to prevent illegal imports exploiting overseas direct purchases around China's Singles' Day (November 11) and the United States' Black Friday (November 29). The main targets of the crackdown include smuggling of goods for resale, misuse of personal customs clearance codes, and illegal imports of goods infringing on K-brand intellectual property rights.

During the special crackdown period, the Korea Customs Service plans to cooperate with domestic and international e-commerce companies to monitor the online distribution of illegal or fraudulent imports, such as harmful food and pharmaceuticals and items infringing on intellectual property rights. The agency will also take measures such as deleting sales posts by illegal sellers.

Earlier, from January to September of this year, illegal imports valued at approximately 80 billion won were uncovered through crackdowns on the abuse of overseas direct purchases. This represents an increase of about 32% compared to the crackdown amount (60.8 billion won) during the same period last year.

Status Data on Crackdown of Overseas Direct Purchase Abusers in the Last 5 Years. Provided by Korea Customs Service

By category, the largest amount detected was smuggling of goods for resale disguised as personal use (customs offenses), totaling 56.3 billion won, followed by intellectual property rights infringements at 21.8 billion won, and smuggling of illegal food and pharmaceuticals (health offenses) at 1.9 billion won.

Accordingly, during the special crackdown period, the Korea Customs Service plans to focus on cases suspected of bringing in goods for resale thousands of times a year via overseas direct purchases, as well as the misuse of personal customs clearance codes by purchasing agents, express delivery companies, customs brokers, and other individuals involved in overseas direct purchase-related work.

Lee Myunggu, Commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, stated, "This year, the number of annual overseas direct purchase imports is expected to approach 200 million cases," adding, "The Korea Customs Service anticipates that illegal activities exploiting the increase in overseas direct purchases will continue, and we plan to strengthen information analysis and planned crackdowns on abusers of overseas direct purchases."

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