Luxury watches replace bags as No. 1 smuggled items

By KH디지털2

Published : Aug. 12, 2015 - 17:16

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Luxury Switzerland-made Cartier watches replaced designer bags to become the most counterfeited items smuggled into Korea by price, according to data by the Korea Customs Service.

About 26 billion won ($21.8 million) worth of fake Cartier watches were found to have been brought into Korea without being reported to the customs office in the January-June period, the agency said.

Popular items that smugglers attempt to sneak through customs are regarded as an index of trending luxury brands in the country, according to officials.

Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags followed next with 14.7 billion won and 4.8 billion won, respectively. Rolex watches ranked at fourth with 4.5 billion during the same period.

Calibre De Cartier Carbon Diver Watch. Cartier

The customs agency said the amount of fake Cartier watches has steadily grown, as it ranked ninth in 2010, fifth in 2012 and fourth in 2013 and 2014.

On the other hand, Louis Vuitton has been seeing its smuggling figures drop precipitously -- from 123.4 billion won in 2010, it dropped to just a third of that in 2014.

“The decline in illegal import of bags began in February when we cracked down on fake luxury goods imported via international mail,” an official from the agency said.

By country of origin, China-made goods, valued at around 312.9 billion won, accounted for the most at 89.4 percent. If including Hong Kong -- which was found to have 33.2 billion won worth of items in total -- the figure rises to 98.9 percent.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)

Luxury watches replace bags as No. 1 smuggled items

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