Korea Consumer Agency "137 Overseas Recalled Products Distributed Domestically... Sales Blocked"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Products recalled overseas for safety reasons may be distributed through domestic purchasing agency sites and overseas direct purchases, so consumers need to exercise special caution.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 21st that it monitored whether defective or faulty products recalled overseas in Europe, Canada, the United States, and other regions were distributed domestically during 2019, and confirmed the distribution of a total of 137 products, recommending corrective actions such as sales blocking.

Among the 137 products, 135 products without confirmed official importers or distributors in Korea had their sales posts deleted or sales blocked through regular communication sales intermediary councils, and for 2 products with confirmed domestic importers or distributors, free repairs were arranged.

The regular council included five companies: Korea Consumer Agency, Naver (Shopping), 11st, eBay Korea (Auction, Gmarket, G9), Interpark (Shopping), and Coupang.

Upon reviewing the categories of the 137 products, children's and infant products such as toys and baby carriers were the most common with 54 items (39.4%), followed by food and beverages with 36 items (26.3%), and home appliances, electronics, and communication devices with 14 items (10.2%).

Regarding the reasons for recall, children's and infant products (54 items) were mostly recalled due to harmful substance content (20 items, 37.0%) and concerns about swallowing small parts of toys (17 items, 31.5%). In particular, squishies, widely used for tactile play by children, were frequently recalled for these reasons.

Food and beverages (36 items) were mainly recalled due to undeclared allergenic substances (15 items, 41.7%) and bacterial contamination (11 items, 30.6%). Especially, many products such as snacks and chocolates lacked proper labeling of allergenic substances like milk, peanuts, and wheat.

To verify whether blocked products were redistributed, the agency monitored 131 products that had been blocked for more than three months since the blocking date in 2019, confirming that 31 products (23.7%) were redistributed and took sales blocking measures again.

Meanwhile, among 72 products with confirmed manufacturing country information, 35 products (48.6%) were produced in China, followed by 22 products (30.6%) produced in the United States.

Even if overseas recalled products are blocked from sale, they may be redistributed through global online distributors. Accordingly, the Korea Consumer Agency plans to continuously monitor overseas recalled products, including checking for redistribution three months after sales blocking of previously blocked products.