Gov’t only takes up 12 cases in nearly 6 years
While South Korean companies have increasingly been hit with financial pressure from China-made counterfeit luxury goods, crackdown on the distribution and sale of such goods is paltry, said Rep. Kim Gi-hyun of the opposition Grand National Party. Rep. Kim said on September 29 that only 12 investigations were conducted against Chinese counterfeit products between 2000 and September this year, representing an average of 1.7 cases per year. Additionally, most of the 12 investigations were conducted after victims requested a probe into China-made copycat goods, rather than through government initiative. The government’s trade commission launched only one probe in total during the time period, looking into China-made faux luxury brassieres. According to recent data by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the number of China-made, but falsely ’South Korea’-branded counterfeit goods numbered more than 700 separate products since 2000, in part driven by the increased exposure in China to South Korean products due to the popularity of Korean television dramas Asia-wide. About 71.1 percent of the counterfeited "made in South Korea" goods make it into South Korea.Rep. Kim urged the government to aggressively cope with the influx of such goods. Under the current laws on fair trade and recovery of industrial damages, the trade commission is required to launch its own investigation into allegations of unfair trade activities if needed. China-made counterfeit goods are believed to cost South Korean companies US$17.1 billion yearly.
