A logistics warehouse in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
Piled high inside shipping boxes, famous overseas brand cosmetics emerge one after another.
All of them are counterfeit.
[(There are no Korean labeling requirements on this either, right? That's right.) Since I'm just looking at it now too...]
The warehouse operator was found to have been distributing counterfeit Chinese cosmetics and health supplements domestically since October 2024.
That amounts to some 83,000 items worth 4.5 billion won.
Chinese manufacturers opened open-market storefronts on Coupang and Naver, sent large quantities of fake products to the warehouse operator in advance, and then requested that they be shipped out whenever orders came in.
If the manufacturers sent the items directly to buyers, it would take a long time and require going through customs clearance, so they chose a detour to avoid getting caught sending products from China rather than through official domestic importers.
From the exterior to the packaging, the products were so similar to genuine items that it was difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye. To make buyers believe they were authentic, they were not priced too cheaply, but sold at prices just slightly lower than the real ones.
While no harmful substances were detected in the fake health supplements, they turned out to have zero functional benefits.
However, the counterfeit manufacturers managed to evade the investigation net as they are located overseas.
Due to the nature of online retail brokerage, it is also difficult to hold intermediaries like Coupang and Naver accountable.
[Kim Jin-hwi / Head of the Central Investigation Team for Harmful Products, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: (We) are currently implementing measures such as immediate deletion (from sites). However, we were unable to confirm to how many consumers or to whom they were sold. That is because the person who opened the open market resides in China.]
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety urged consumers to use official sellers certified by brands or manufacturers when purchasing products through online open markets.
4.5 Billion Won Worth of Chinese Counterfeits Sold... Only the Warehouse Keeper Arrested (8 News, Sept. 17, 2026)
Reported by Cho Yoon-ha | Produced by Choi Yoon-seo | Video by Kim Nam-sung | Video Editing by Lee Sang-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
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