Employees at the Seoul headquarters customs office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, are checking confiscated items such as fake luxury bags on October 7 last year. The Seoul Headquarters Customs said that the brothers and sisters who illegally distributed domestically produced fake luxury bags and shoes worth 29 billion won in genuine poetry were arrested for violating the Customs Act, the Trademark Act, and the regulation and punishment of the concealment of criminal proceeds and handed over to the prosecution. News 1
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#. A, an office worker in her 30s, was searching online for a handbag of a French brand she wanted to buy, but found it cheaper than a department store and quickly bought it. It was around 500,000 won at the department store, but it was in the late 100,000 won at the corresponding shopping mall. I was worried that it would be a fake, but I bought it with the belief that it was’genuine or 100% refund, purchase directly from foreign outlets. But when I received it, it was a fake.
Online luxury shopping,’fake’ checklist
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Mr. A was frustrated after purchasing products from overseas brands that were relatively low to medium-sized, but there were not a few cases of selling fake luxury clothing and miscellaneous goods such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Maxmara. This is what happens as the online luxury market grows. According to Euromonitor, a market research company on the 29th, the size of the domestic online luxury goods market last year is estimated at 1.595.7 billion won. This is a 10.9% increase over the previous year. In the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the era of untact (non-face-to-face) has arrived, but the industry analysis is that the online luxury goods market is getting bigger.
How to determine authenticity when buying luxury goods online
– However, due to the nature of online transactions where you cannot see and purchase products with your own eyes, you have to carefully check whether or not to buy a luxury product after purchasing it. Trenby, an online luxury shopping platform, advised, “When purchasing luxury items online, it is desirable to check in advance whether it is a counterfeit product or a lowest price.
– – There are roughly three ways to determine if a company handles genuine products. First of all, it is to check whether the luxury goods vendor is an official company that has a business registration number. Lee Jong-hyun, Vice President of Trenby, said, “If you are selling luxury goods through official distribution channels, your business registration number is listed at the bottom of the online site or platform homepage both in Korea and abroad.” You can also check whether it is right away.” In the case of overseas sites, there have also been many sites that identify illegal sites by tracking IP (IP). The site has Italian luxury goods, but if the IP is from China, the price is too cheap, you need to be suspicious.
It is also good to check whether there is a compensation policy for fake goods. The more official sellers, the more often they have a compensation policy. In Korea, as the online luxury goods market is growing, there is a trend of operating a ‘200% compensation system for distribution of fake goods’. If you are an overseas shopping mall, you can also ask about the compensation policy. It is also a criterion for determining whether the inspection procedure for genuine products is operated by itself.
Britain’s Brexit Aftermath… Could be a tax bomb
– The main purpose of online overseas luxury purchases is to find products that can be purchased cheaper than in Korea or are difficult to obtain in Korea. Trenby explains that it is possible to shop at a reasonable price by using local price information and various global sales benefits. For example, shopping sites in the U.S. during the’Black Friday’ season, which is a year-end inventory, and European sites such as the UK, where this is common during the’Boxing Day’ shopping season before and after Christmas, may be advantageous for purchase.
However, even for the same luxury goods, the demand for each country is different, and there are cases where the domestic selling price is rather cheap depending on the specific product stock or the application of a sale. Lee Jong-hyun, Vice President of Trenby, said, “As more and more online luxury platforms are available at home and abroad, price comparison has become more important. It is also important to find a shopping platform that has artificial intelligence (AI) technology or a broad brand partnership network.”
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Capture of Korean online luxury shopping platform’Trenbi’ application (app).
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Finally, if you have found the cheapest product, you must also calculate the tariff and exchange rate. In some cases, adding customs tax can be more expensive than living in Korea. In particular, as the British Brexit took effect from January 1 this year, if the product originated from the European Union (EU), the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) cannot be applied when the product departs from the UK. If the final price does not include VAT, it may result in a tax bomb.
Reporter Baek Minjeong [email protected]
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