Counterfeit luxury items seizures surge to 7.56 mil. in last 5 years
Counterfeit luxury brand products sold by a social media influencer are on display. Courtesy of Korean Intellectual Property Office
It all started with a blog. In 2020, Park, a self-proclaimed "influencer" in her mid-30s, began posting photos of herself wearing trendy fashion items on her blog. As her online presence grew, she expanded to Instagram and other social media platforms, eventually launching an online store.
There, she sold knockoff designs of famous brands, adding her own label to the counterfeits. As sales boomed, Park even started selling counterfeit luxury goods, including Chanel replicas, passing them off as genuine to loyal customers.
Park produced and sold over 20,000 counterfeit items, which would have been worth 34.4 billion won ($26 million) if they had been genuine. She was eventually arrested and charged with violating the Design Protection Act.
Her case illustrates how counterfeit crimes have evolved from small-scale operations in traditional markets like Dongdaemun and Namdaemun to sophisticated "corporate-style" operations exploiting online platforms to reach a wider audience.
Counterfeit production and distribution have surged recently. According to data from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) obtained by Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Song Jae-bong, 7.56 million counterfeit items were seized over the past five years.
Clothing accounted for the largest share with 678,138 items, followed by cosmetics (181,782), accessories (61,672) and bags (43,039). An official from a luxury goods platform said, “The circulation of counterfeit items online has increased to the point where consumers are trying to resell fakes on our platform.”
The number of criminal cases related to design and trademark counterfeiting has also risen. KIPO’s special judicial police, who handle these crimes, saw an increase in arrests from 104 cases in 2019 to 356 cases in 2023 — a nearly fourfold increase.
Seoul city officials display counterfeit luxury brand items seized from Myeong-dong, Dongdaemun and Namdaemun markets, July 30. Yonhap
Investigation challenges
Despite the rise in counterfeit crimes, KIPO’s investigative resources remain limited. The department responsible for investigating design and technology counterfeiting has only 20 officers, the same number since 2021.
These officers are responsible for managing counterfeit crimes nationwide, including seizing and cataloging thousands of counterfeit items by hand.
Additionally, only two forensic investigators are available to analyze suspects' phones and computers to track how the counterfeiting operations were conducted. In contrast, the National Police Agency has 216 forensic experts handling similar cases, highlighting the stark disparity in resources.
As a result, the time it takes for KIPO to process cases from arrest to prosecution has increased from 7.8 months in 2021 to 9.3 months in 2022, while the average time for police to handle such cases is just 63 days.
Rep. Song stressed the urgency of increasing KIPO’s investigative manpower. "No one should suffer from counterfeit products. It is essential to strengthen KIPO’s investigative capabilities to combat these crimes that disrupt market order," Song said.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.