Intensifying Assault of 'Chinese Counterfeits'... 1.8 Trillion Won Over 5 Years

Over the past five years, the scale of so-called 'counterfeit' imported goods falsely labeled with trademarks has reached 2.1 trillion KRW. Among these, Chinese products accounted for more than 80% of the total.

On the 24th, the Korea Customs Service announced that the scale of imported goods infringing intellectual property rights detected by customs authorities from 2019 to 2023 reached 2.0902 trillion KRW based on market value.

By item, bags accounted for the largest amount at 763.8 billion KRW, followed by watches (578.4 billion KRW) and clothing fabrics (22.9 billion KRW), with many fashion-related items. By brand, Louis Vuitton topped the list with 246.4 billion KRW, followed by Rolex at 213.7 billion KRW and Chanel at 113.5 billion KRW.

By country, Chinese products amounted to 1.7658 trillion KRW, accounting for 84.5% of all intellectual property rights-infringing imported goods. Following China were Japan (28.4 billion KRW) and Hong Kong (13.6 billion KRW).

Customs officers are examining counterfeit luxury goods seized from a smuggling organization at the Incheon Main Customs Auditorium in Jung-gu, Incheon. [Image source=Yonhap News]

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Recently, with the aggressive expansion of Chinese online trading platforms such as AliExpress (Ali) and Temu, which emphasize low prices, overseas direct purchases have increased, and accordingly, cases of intellectual property rights infringement detection have also risen this year.

From January to February, the number of customs clearance cases for e-commerce goods was 25.623 million, a 56% increase compared to 16.426 million cases during the same period last year. Among these, Chinese overseas direct purchases accounted for 17.833 million cases, making up 69.6%. The proportion of Chinese direct purchases in total direct purchases has steadily increased from 43% in 2020, 50% in 2021, to 54% in 2022.

Correspondingly, the scale of intellectual property rights-infringing imported goods detected during the two months from January to February was 65.3 billion KRW, a 39% increase from 46.9 billion KRW during the same period last year. Among these, Chinese products accounted for 59.3 billion KRW, a 29% increase from 46 billion KRW last year.

The problem is that manpower and budget to crack down on these are severely insufficient. In the case of Pyeongtaek Customs, where all imported volumes are Chinese products, the number of e-commerce goods customs clearance cases processed last year was 39.752 million. This accounts for 45% of the total Chinese overseas direct purchases (88.815 million cases). Based on the working days of customs officers (310 days), this amounts to an average of 128,000 cases per day.

However, there are only 34 customs officers in the express clearance department responsible for this, meaning each officer has to handle about 3,800 cases per day.

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