$2.9B Worth Fakes for 5 Years
It was found that the volume of fakes surpassed 3 trillion won (US$2.7 billion) in past five years and the most frequently faked brand was Louis Vuitton.
On September 28, according to data on a crackdown on intellectual property right violators which lawmaker Park Myung-jae (the Saenuri Party) who is a member of the Planning and Finance Committee at the National Assembly, disclosed fake smuggling cases over the past five years (2011 to 2015) totaled 3,088 and the monetary value of uncovered counterfeited products reached 3.245 trillion won (US$2.9 billion).
By item, watches topped the list with 987.7 billion won while bags (718.4 billion won or US$642 million), sexual performance drugs (435.8 billion won or US$390 million) and clothing and textiles (421.2 billion won or US$376 million) came in second, third and fourth, respectively.
In the case of watches, the amount of smuggled watches more than doubled to 255.0 billion won (US$228 million) last year from 111.6 billion won (US$100 million) in 2011. By contrast, counterfeited bags which recorded the highest amount of 225.5 billion won (US$201 million) among smuggled items in 2011 gradually dropped to 37.6 billion (US$33 million) last year.
By brand, faked Louis Vuitton products stood at number one with 272.0 billion won (US$243 million). In the case of Louis Vuitton, a luxury brand whose bags are famous, faked Louis Vuitton products amounting to 106.9 billion won (US$95 million) were uncovered in 2011 alone. But last year, the amount plummeted to 10.3 billion won (US$9 million), one tenth of the volume in 2011.
Other frequently faked brands were Rolex (197.4 billion won or US$176 million), Chanel (150.5 billion won or US$134 million), Cartier (133.1 billion won or US$119 million) and Burberry (114.0 billion won or US$102 million). Nike ranked within the top ten with 33.7 billion won (US$30 million) as the only sports brand. Most of such fakes came from China, accounting for 95.1% (2.98 trillion won or US2.66 billion).