https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20190923088200065?input=1195m
2019-09-23 13:51 / Yeonhap news / Reporter SON Hyun-Kyu / son@yna.co.kr
Amongst the counterfeit luxury products caught in last 5 years, Louis Vuitton takes highest percentage, and about 90% of these counterfeits are from China.
Hong Il-Pyo, a member of National assembly’s Planning and finance Committee, received National Audit Report from Korea Customs and according to the report the amount of counterfeit product seized by customs from 2015 to August this year are almost 1,860 billion won.
89% (1650 billion won) of all seized counterfeit products are smuggled from China.
The luxurious brand that has highest number of counterfeit seized is Louis Vuitton : a total of 208 billion won in 5 years are seized at Customs.
This year particular, the amount reached to 101.1 billion won until August which is 9 times more than the total amount seized in last year along (11.6 billion won).
Mr. Hong further stated that “the reason why the seizure of counterfeit Louis Vuitton increased so much is that a gang that smuggled 154,000 pieces of Chinese counterfeits got caught. The total amount was 220 billion won and 63 billion won was of counterfeit Louis Vuitton”.
Follow by Louis Vuitton, Rolex (119.8 billion won), CHANEL (112.2 billion won), Cartier (62.5 billion won), Gucci (27.1 billion won), Prada (27.2 billion won) and Hermes (22.7 billion won) were also sized.
By product category, wristwatches were most popular (665 billion won), follow by bags (507.4 billion won) and clothes (303.3 billion won).
The counterfeit wristwatches seized were only 10.8 billion won in 2017 but sharply increased in last year by 33 times, reaching 256.6 billion won.
Mr. Hong also pointed out that “smuggling of counterfeit not only negatively affects the national images but also is a serious crime” and “In order to cope with intelligent counterfeit smugglers, one-time investigation should be avoid : custom rather must strengthen the clearance process using screening equipment.
