The Seoul city government said on the 16th that it will operate a standing task force to monitor online trademark infringement through the intelligent crime investigation team established in January this year.
The intelligent crime investigation team of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Civil Affairs Judicial Police Bureau is being operated to expand its primarily offline trademark investigation capabilities to the online sphere. The Civil Affairs Judicial Police Bureau has conducted trademark investigations for 13 years since 2012. Through last year, over the past four years, it recorded 503 criminal cases, the seizure of 46,128 counterfeit items, and the confiscation of genuine-goods-equivalent value of about 42.7 billion won.
The city sees damage from the distribution of counterfeit goods, commonly called "knockoffs," increasing alongside the growth of the online shopping mall market. The online shopping mall market reached 272 trillion won last year, up 25.93% from 2022 (216 trillion won), and during the same period the live commerce market roughly doubled by about 2.3 times to 4.7 trillion won last year.
In addition, the city will pay up to 200 million won in rewards under the local government ordinance to citizens who report or tip off authorities to online counterfeits in a way that decisively contributes to the public interest. The decision reflects the judgment that citizen participation, together with the task force's investigative capacity, plays a pivotal role.
Tips can be filed through the "Seoul Smart Inconvenience Report" app and the Civil Harm Crime Reporting Center. Anonymous tips are also possible. When submitting a tip, including initial materials such as ▲ physical evidence ▲ purchase records ▲ seller information such as business registration number, delivery invoice, phone number, and return address ▲ captured chat logs and other screenshots can aid the investigation. Because online counterfeit posts disappear quickly, the city asked people not to discard counterfeit goods and to keep them as purchased at the time of purchase and join in reporting.
Distributing, selling, or storing counterfeit goods can be punished by up to seven years in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won under the Trademark Act.
Byun Gyeong-ok, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Civil Affairs Judicial Police Bureau, said, "Swift citizen tips are the key that determines the success or failure of online knockoff investigations," adding, "We will combine the task force's professional investigative capabilities with citizens' valuable tips to establish a sound distribution order and repay contributions to detection with appropriate rewards."