Fake luxury handbags made in China continue to be found in Korea

연합뉴스 / 2021-10-12 10:04:12

▲ This photo, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows pictures of fake luxury bags found in Korea. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEJONG, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- Out of all the fake luxury bags exposed in Korea, the most copied fashion brands were found to be Louis Vuitton, followed by Chanel and Gucci.

The number of fake handbags exposed starting from 2017 to August this year was 1,866, which totals up to 467.9 billion won, according to data provided by the Korea Customs Service on Tuesday.

In terms of brands, 148.4 out of 467.9 billion won accounted for copies of Louis Vuitton, followed by Chanel with 70.1 billion won, Gucci with 29.5 billion won, Hermes (29.3 billion won), and Prada (21 billion won).

Since 2017, the largest counterfeit bags had imitations of Louis Vuitton's designs.

While 1.5 billion won and 800 million won worth bags with fake Gucci and Hermes designs respectively were caught in 2017, last year, the numbers have multiplied sevenfold and by 15 for each brand.

For more than four years, 97.8% of the fake bags exposed were made in China, followed by Hong Kong (1.8%), Japan (0.1%), and others (0.3%).

The annual exposed amount of money amounted to 66.4 billion won in 2017, 42 billion won in 2018, 265.9 billion won in 2019, 85.4 billion won in 2020, and 8.2 billion won this year (January through August).

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