Most counterfeits seized by customs from China: report

An overwhelming majority of the counterfeit products seized by South Korean customs in the first half of this year were from China, Korea Customs Service data showed Thursday.

From January to June, 93.4 billion won ($68.6 million) worth of fake goods were seized while being smuggled into the country. Imports from China accounted for 24 of the 34 cases, worth 78.1 billion won, according to the customs data in a report compiled by Rep. Park Seong-hoon of the ruling People Power Party.

Most of the illegal goods were fakes of luxury brand products, with fake Chanel items accounting for 48.7 billion won worth of the seized counterfeits. It was followed by replicas of Goyard (7.5 billion won), Luis Vuitton (4.1 billion won), and Gucci (2 billion won).

The counterfeit goods included some 65 billion won worth of bags, and 20 billion won of clothes and other fabric items.

Many South Koreans spend substantial amount of money on luxury brands, often developing their taste at a young age. In a November survey on 1,000 adults by local market researcher Embrain, 45.7 percent of the respondents said they first bought luxury products in their early 20s, while 26 percent said they first did so in high school.

But reports indicate that distribution of the counterfeit products is on the rise in the country.

Korea Intellectual Property Office recently released their annual report on protection of intellectual properties, based on its survey of local businesses with at least 10 employees. It showed that 50.2 percent of the companies who participated in the survey requested for a crackdown on counterfeits being distributed in the country.

Rep. Park's report showed that 371.3 billion won worth of counterfeit items were seized in South Korea last year, and 354.1 billion won worth of them were made in China.

"With increase in direct purchases from overseas, the distribution of Chinese counterfeits has been on the increase. ... In order to prevent the damages inflicted on the consumers, who may mistake them for real products, and firms in and out of the country, there must be a stricter network to crackdown on such items," Park said.