158 illegal import cases! The Korean Customs Administration announced the results of a survey of major e-commerce companies

According to the Korea Customs Service, since 2018, a total of 158 cases of illegal circulation of imported goods have been arrested by the Korea Customs Service, including 88 cases of improper imports, 13 cases of violations of origin, and 57 cases of infringement of intellectual property rights.

According to investigations, most of these illegally imported goods are electronic cigarette accessories and cosmetics, kitchen supplies, toys, golf clubs, shoes, thermometers, jellies and other products.

Therefore, last year, the Korea Customs Service conducted an on-site investigation on eight mainstream e-commerce platforms including Naver Smart Store , 11 Street, Cooupang, etc. Based on the written materials submitted by the major e-commerce platforms, 38 items in seven fields were rated into three levels: excellent, average, and unsatisfactory, and the final investigation results were released yesterday.

The results show that among the 38 survey items, 169 of the 8 e-commerce platforms were rated "excellent", 94 were rated "average", and 41 were rated "unsatisfactory". The proportion of "average" and above accounted for 87%. The average values ​​of the three types were 21 excellent , 12 average, and 5 unsatisfactory.

The stores with the most excellent and average reviews were 11st and Coupang (35), followed by Gmarket and Auction (34), We Make Price (33), Naver Smart Store (32), Interpark (29), and TMON (27). As for negative reviews, Interpark had the highest score of 9, while 11st and Coupang had the lowest scores of 3.

Judging from the situation of each platform itself, although Naver Smart Store is excellent in providing search functions for information related to customs clearance and safety certification of imported goods, it has shortcomings in monitoring assistance projects.

Although 11th Street has excellent information management on sellers of illegally imported goods, it still lacks in educating its employees on how to prevent illegal imports.

Auction and Gmarket have excellent reporting procedures to protect consumers, but their management of companies exempted from reporting standards is inadequate.

Although We Make Price informed consumers of dispute resolution standards in advance, there were deficiencies in the reporting procedures to protect consumers who had purchased illegally imported items.

Interpark has excellent organization and manpower management to prevent the sale of illegally imported goods. On the other hand, the platform has shortcomings in refunding buyers of illegally imported goods.

TMON has an excellent refund guarantee and compensation, but lacks guidance on consumer dispute resolution agencies.

Coupang is excellent in its own supervision and management of prohibiting the sale of illegally imported items as confirmed in media reports. However, employee training needs to be improved, such as using professional instructors for training.

Overall, these eight e-commerce platforms have recognized the need to prevent the circulation of illegally imported goods and have a basic system in place, but each of them has some shortcomings. However, as relevant measures continue to improve, I believe that the development of South Korea's e-commerce market will be even better.

Korean Customs

Illegal import

E-commerce platform