Authorities Seize 68.8 Billion Won Worth of Fake Watches Smuggled from China

Counterfeit luxury watches from China. Photo = Customs Service

During China’s Singles Day and America’s Black Friday known as periods for massive discounts, authorities seized approximately 370,000 counterfeit luxury items imported from China valued at about 688 billion Korean won (approximately $580 million).

The Customs Service conducted a concentrated crackdown on overseas direct purchases for one month from the end of October.

As a result of the crackdown, two cases (worth 435 billion won or roughly $366 million) of smuggling fake goods from China were detected. They were caught trying to import fake Richard Mille watches ordered through social networking services (SNS) and other platforms disguised as personal items.

If an individual directly purchases items worth less than $150 (or $200 for U.S. goods) for personal use, they can be exempted from customs duties and can clear customs without declaring the import. On the other hand, goods intended for sale must be declared upon import.

In addition, 20 cases of smuggling goods for sale under the guise of personal use (worth 148 billion won or about $125 million), 12 cases of distributed smuggling using others’ names (worth 43 billion won or around $36 million), and three cases of customs evasion through purchasing agents (worth 62 billion won or roughly $52 million) were also detected.

The main items seized were 92,000 miscellaneous goods such as bags and shoes (worth 409 billion won or about $345 million), 250,000 food, medicine, and cosmetics items (worth 161 billion won or approximately $136 million), 10,000 sports and leisure goods (worth 77 billion won or about $65 million), and 25,000 electrical and electronic products (worth 41 billion won or around $34 million).

Health functional foods containing harmful ingredients designated by the Food and Drug Safety Agency (worth 57 billion won or about $48 million), Japanese fishing gear (worth 54 billion won or about $45 million), and honey for the manufacture of traditional Korean medicine (worth 2 billion won or approximately $1.7 million) were also seized.

During this period, the Customs Service in collaboration with 15 major e-commerce companies monitored and deleted or modified approximately 43,000 posts related to the sale of illegal imported goods and suspended over 400 user accounts involved in illegal sales.

By. Soo Min Hwang