The Korea Customs Service uncovered 41.6 billion KRW worth of apparel sold with falsified or concealed country-of-origin information.

On the 9th, the Korea Customs Service announced that it had detected origin-labeling violations worth 41.6 billion KRW at 193 companies.

This crackdown was a pan-government joint operation involving the Korea Customs Service, the police, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the Public Procurement Service, carried out for 100 days from February 9 was conducted.

The Korea Customs Service explained that it launched the operation as so-called ‘label swapping’ of low-priced imported clothing continued amid a slump in domestic demand that has put the local apparel industry at risk.

As a result of the crackdown, it was confirmed that ‘fake products’ had even flowed into government agencies. Chemical-protection coveralls worth 3.6 billion KRW, disguised as domestic products, were supplied to public institutions. Work uniforms for central government agencies (worth 150 million KRW) had dual country-of-origin markings, and civil defense uniforms supplied to local governments (worth 16 million KRW) had instances where origin-label tags had been removed.

Violations were also uncovered in the retail market. Among womenswear sold at department stores, items labeled as ‘domestic’ but actually foreign-made, such as from China, amounted to about 180 million KRW. At a mixed-use shopping mall, scarves with damaged origin labels (about 48 million KRW) were sold, and at an online mall, T-shirts with no origin labeling (3 million KRW) were sold.

The Korea Customs Service also uncovered cases where foreign-made fabrics were disguised as Korean and about 23.7 billion KRW worth of products were exported by two companies. These firms were found to have obtained, falsely, Korean certificates of origin.

Other violations included art smocks for children and leather handbags sold without origin labeling, as well as cases where underwear was sold after removing the origin label.

The joint task force plans to impose surcharges on the companies caught and to seek criminal penalties by referring illegal acts to investigative authorities. Under the relevant law, failure to indicate origin or false indication can result in a surcharge of up to 300 million KRW, and violators may face imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to 100 million KRW.

Korea Customs Service Commissioner Lee Jong-uk said, “The amount uncovered in this crackdown is about 2.8 times the level in 2019,” adding, “‘label swapping’ is a serious illegal act that destroys the domestic production base and damages the value of K-fashion brands, so we will strengthen enforcement.”