The government will investigate more than 1,000 overseas direct purchase products and disclose information on hazardous products. It will also select and investigate about 5,000 products distributed domestically.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 15th the '2025 Product Safety Investigation Plan.' The safety investigation refers to monitoring products in circulation, issuing recall orders for identified hazardous products, and conducting product safety surveillance activities to block the distribution of hazardous products.

This year, the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation plans to investigate more than 1,000 overseas direct purchase products, targeting overseas online platforms with a large number of users. This exceeds double the number of overseas direct purchase products investigated last year (450).

Employees are inspecting goods at the Incheon International Airport Customs Headquarters Special Logistics Center in Jung-gu, Incheon./Courtesy of News1

Considering distribution timing, sales volume, and the frequency of identifying hazardous products, safety investigations will be conducted in three phases, and if hazards are confirmed, requests will be made to delete relevant selling pages. To provide consumers with relevant information, the safety information center and Consumer24 will post related content.

Products distributed domestically will also undergo regular inspections, focusing on 58 high-risk items prone to fire or accidents. The targets include electrical appliances (27 items) such as rice cookers and electric blankets, daily necessities (15 items) such as two-wheeled bicycles and portable bicycles, and children's products (16 items) like children's chairs and bunk beds. A plan is in place to investigate more than 4,700 products across five phases.

To prevent products without KC certification from circulating in the market, joint crackdowns with the Korean National Police Agency and local governments will be strengthened. The number of joint crackdowns by the police agency will increase from two last year to more than four this year, while the number of cooperating local governments will expand from 21 to 24. Planned crackdowns targeting frequently reported illegal items will increase from two to three, and continuous monitoring will be conducted throughout the year for products like electric scooters and electric bicycles to eradicate the circulation of illegal products.

Cooperation with the private sector will also be strengthened. Monitoring and guidance will be conducted in collaboration with 150 safety monitors from six consumer organizations. Additionally, there are plans to form advisory groups in four respective sectors (open market, comprehensive shopping mall, home shopping, children's specialty mall) in cooperation with 20 online platform companies.

Management to prevent recalled products from being redistributed will also be strengthened. Using information held by eight online platform companies, consumers who purchased hazardous products will be directly notified of the recall. For children's products, plans are in place to use school notification apps like School Paper and High Class to improve recall rates.

For companies with low recall rates, supplementary orders will be issued, and those redistributing recalled products will be referred for investigation. If the recall rate for recalled products is low, efforts will be made to analyze the causes of the low recall rate and improve the method for calculating recall rates.