The counterfeit market in South Korea

16 déc.

South Korea is one of the biggest luxury markets in Asia. According to the Korea Parliament's Finance and Strategy Committee, up to 350 billion won worth of luxury bags were imported in August 2021, whereas the figure amounted to 177.5 billion won in August 2019.

As the south korean consumers tend to invest in luxury goods rather than in savings accounts and housing, the trend to buy luxury items skyrocketed. Indeed, South Korea is a collectivist society. “Korean society is very sensitive to trends and people care a lot about others. To feel a sense of belonging, people choose to follow others to be involved in a group. Also, to achieve superiority over others, they tend to wear expensive items to show off,” according to Kwak Geum-joo, a professor of psychology at Seoul National University.

However, as the demand and the trends grow towards the purchase of high end products, the black market and counterfeit goods benefit from it as low and middle class consumers can not afford to spend thousands of dollars for one item.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the number of fake goods sold online has increased by more than 204.4 percent from January to August 2020.

The data from the Korea Customs Service reveals that more than 1,866 fake bags smuggled in South Korea were seized from January 2017 to August last year, which represents about 457.9 billion won.

The handbag brand with the most fakes sold in the Korean market is Louis Vuitton, worth as much as 148.4 billion won of seized items. This is followed by Chanel with more than 70.1 billion won worth of knockoffs and 29.5 billion won worth of fake Gucci. These counterfeit numbers are the highest ever since 2017.
The country is now taking the lead in counterfeiting qualitative fakes for a smaller price than the original luxury brands.

Thus, global luxury brands have declared a war on counterfeit items by limiting the number of boutiques in Korea while restricting purchases to one handbag per person for popular models. If selling counterfeits is illegal, there is no law to penalize those who buy fake goods. As such, luxury brands pressure South Korea to strengthen the laws related to copyrights and ask the authorities to actively educate the public through various campaigns as well.

Sources:

Chanel, la première cible des contrefaçons en Corée du Sud | AGENCE DE PRESSE YONHAP (yna.co.kr)

Faux et usage de faux en Corée du Sud – Libération (liberation.fr)

La propriété intellectuelle en Corée du Sud | 1 INPI.fr

Chanel, marque de luxe la plus sujette à la contrefaçon en Corée du Sud - Luxus Plus (luxus-plus.com)

[From the Scene] South Korea’s counterfeit market is very much alive (koreaherald.com)

Counterfeit Culture | Seoul: A Look Inside Korea’s Fake Fashion World - YouTube

Creatrip: Fake Luxury Goods In Korea | Are Koreans Really Against Them?

Counterfeit scandals push customers away from luxury online shopping platforms (koreatimes.co.kr)

Musinsa to check authenticity of imported luxury goods (koreatimes.co.kr)

Customs office seizes W120 bil. worth of fake designer goods (koreatimes.co.kr)

Chanel to withdraw downtown Seoul duty free shops (koreatimes.co.kr)