Overseas Direct Purchase Proxy 'Not Just Anyone Can Do It'

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Customs Service announced on the 22nd that it will implement a registration system for purchasing agency companies starting from the 1st of next month.

The registration system is introduced to manage overseas direct purchase agencies and protect consumers. Before the introduction of the registration system, there were no management standards for purchasing agency companies, making it difficult to accurately grasp their scale. Cases of purchasing agencies declaring low prices at the customs clearance stage or illegally clearing customs have continuously occurred, creating blind spots in consumer protection.

Accordingly, the Korea Customs Service has established a new customs law mandating the registration of purchasing agency companies above a certain scale and decided to apply and enforce detailed procedures starting next month.

The registration system applies when a telecommunication sales business operator who has completed notification under the Electronic Commerce Act has a total product price of imported goods purchased through purchasing agencies of 1 billion KRW or more in the previous year.

Applications can be made by submitting a registration application form and attached documents to the customs office handling the import customs clearance of purchasing agency goods mainly during the one year prior to the registration date.

Upon registration, the customs office issues a ‘Purchasing Agency Operator Registration Code,’ and thereafter, goods purchased and cleared through the purchasing agency must include the registration code received by the purchasing agency when filing import declarations and preparing customs clearance lists.

However, companies subject to registration as of the 1st of next month are allowed a registration grace period until June 30 of next year.

A Korea Customs Service official stated, “With the recent development of e-commerce and the activation of online non-face-to-face consumption, the volume of overseas direct purchases has increased significantly. The Korea Customs Service plans to continuously monitor the registration status of purchasing agencies and strengthen the management system to prevent consumer damage during the overseas direct purchase agency process.”

Meanwhile, annual e-commerce transactions increased from 23,592 cases in 2017, 32,266 in 2018, 42,994 in 2019, to 63,578 in 2020. This year, 26,715 e-commerce transactions were conducted up to April.