The Korea Customs Service said on the 5th that it will conduct a special crackdown on illegal imports through overseas direct purchases for the next eight weeks to coincide with periods of large-scale discounts such as China's Singles Day and the U.S. Black Friday.
The Korea Customs Service will carry out the special crackdown from the 10th of this month to the 31st of next month through 34 customs offices nationwide. Through this special crackdown, authorities plan to focus on cracking down on smuggling of goods for sale by abusing the overseas direct purchase system, theft of personal customs code numbers, and illegal imports of intellectual property-infringing goods such as K-brands.
It will also work with domestic and overseas e-commerce companies to monitor online distribution of illegal and illicitly imported goods, such as harmful food and pharmaceuticals and intellectual property-infringing items. It plans to impose measures such as suspensions and deletions on illegal sellers and posts.
Due to special crackdowns on crimes abusing overseas direct purchases during the recent vacation season, cases of abusing overseas direct purchases cracked down on by the Korea Customs Service reached 80 billion won through September this year. This is a 32% increase from the same period a year earlier.
Of the 80 billion won, tariff offenses such as smuggling of goods for sale disguised as for personal use accounted for 56.3 billion won. In addition, intellectual property infringement offenses were 21.8 billion won, and health-related offenses such as smuggling of illegal food and pharmaceuticals were 1.9 billion won.
Korea Customs Service Commissioner Lee Myeong-gu said, "As overseas direct purchases are expected to reach 200 million transactions this year, illegal activities abusing them continue," and added, "We will further strengthen information analysis and planned crackdowns on offenders abusing overseas direct purchases to prevent harm to domestic consumers and protect the public's health and safety."