BTS Jin's liquor brand accused of product misinformation

Paik Jong-won, left, and Jin of BTS in a photo from Jin's Instagram posted in May 2022 / Captured from Jin's Instagram

A liquor brand co-founded by Jin of BTS and celebrity restaurateur and businessman Paik Jong-won is under government investigation for product misinformation after a consumer filed a complaint.

According to industry officials Thursday, the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service recently received a consumer complaint about the liquor brand and transferred the case to its regional office in Yesan, South Chungcheong Province. The agency is an arm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The report came to light after an unnamed user posted on a popular online forum that they had filed a complaint because IGIN highball drinks, manufactured by Jini’s Lamp, has “risks of misleading consumers regarding its origin labeling.” Jini’s Lamp is the company that the two celebrities founded in 2022 in Yesan and distributes through Paiksooldoga, another traditional liquor company launched by Paik.

The consumer said that online product information for IGIN gins with plum and watermelon flavors was not the same as what Jini’s Lamp claimed. Whereas the company indicated on its homepage that the products used plum extract from Chile and watermelon extract from the United States, the product information available elsewhere indicated the extracts are domestic.

The consumer said he filed the complaint out of concern for the consumer market here.

“There were websites that repeatedly said those drinks used domestic extracts. If the products used a single ingredient from outside the country, such a claim is false,” the consumer wrote.

Calling Jin an “artist with global influence,” the consumer added that the celebrity must “take the matter seriously in terms of legal and ethical responsibility.”

“The agency’s special judicial police officers should conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with the law and principles, and proceed with criminal charges and referral to prosecutors if violations are confirmed,” they added.

The controversial products are currently not available at online outlets run by Jini’s Lamp and Paiksooldoga.

Jini’s Lamp said the products’ false information was left online for a certain period but has been fixed.

Theborn Korea, a major restaurant and takeout franchise company run by Paik, said Paik’s investment in Jini’s Lamp was personal and irrelevant to its current business operation.