Musinsa's "100% Authentic" Claim Rebutted by Cream
Musinsa Side "Legal Action as Announced... Damage Also Calculated"
Cream "Regretful to See Efforts to Protect Users Undermined"
[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The counterfeit dispute between Musinsa and Naver KREAM over the luxury brand 'Fear of God' T-shirts appears to be escalating.
According to industry sources on the 24th, Musinsa has sent a certified letter to KREAM regarding the controversy. KREAM has not yet issued a separate statement. However, in the meantime, KREAM updated the inspection standards for authentic and counterfeit products on its website notice board, excluding the Musinsa brand seal that Musinsa had raised issues about. The original post was not deleted, but only the part showing the Musinsa brand seal was mosaicked.
In a notice the previous day, KREAM stated, "KREAM has inspected about 80,000 Essentials products and approximately 3,000 20SS T-shirts, and holds advanced data on the brand and products," adding, "We collected various counterfeit cases for precise inspection, and this product showed diverse characteristics of counterfeits we gathered, so we judged it as counterfeit," maintaining their original position.
They further claimed, "It is very regrettable as a fellow resale platform operator to see efforts by resale platform operators to protect users being disparaged as meaningless activities unless done by the brand itself." This appears to be a remark in response to Musinsa's earlier statement that "Determining the authenticity of a brand's genuine or counterfeit products is the exclusive right of the brand."
Musinsa plans to continue legal action as announced. They intend to pursue civil and criminal responses, including filing a complaint with the Fair Trade Commission. Specifically, they believe the damage suffered since KREAM first displayed the problematic post is considerable and plan to quantify the extent of the damage through their internal legal team.
KREAM, facing a potential loss of public trust, is unlikely to back down easily. The issue is increasingly likely to escalate into a legal battle rather than ending as a simple incident. Musinsa is reportedly reviewing whether charges such as obstruction of business or defamation can be applied to KREAM's notice. However, it is uncertain whether criminal prosecution would lead to punishment. In defamation cases, liability is established if the perpetrator knowingly spreads false information with the intent to defame, but many view this case as unlikely to meet those criteria. The same applies to obstruction of business. If Musinsa proceeds with the Fair Trade Commission complaint, it is expected that there will be disputes over whether it constitutes 'disparaging advertising' prohibited under the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising.
The incident began when a customer who purchased an Essentials T-shirt from the 'Fear of God' brand at the Musinsa Boutique submitted it to KREAM for inspection before resale. KREAM judged the product to be counterfeit and posted a notice on the 18th of last month including the criteria and photos for authentic and counterfeit judgments. However, the photos used as examples of counterfeits showed the Musinsa brand seal, raising suspicions that the T-shirts sold by Musinsa might be counterfeit. In response, Musinsa issued a statement saying, "It lacks credibility for intermediary companies to conduct inspections based on arbitrary standards," and disclosed authentication results from official Essentials retailer PACSUN, luxury authentication service 'Legit Check by CH,' and the Korea Luxury Authentication Institute, among other domestic and international verification experts.
On the previous day, KREAM countered by releasing results from counterfeit judgments conducted by China's intermediary platform NICE, Japan's 'SNKRDUNK' operator SODA, and Legit Check by CH, reiterating their original stance.
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