‘Counterfeit’ Chinese-made Fake Golf Clubs Smuggling and Sales Operators Arrested

A trader who smuggled counterfeit golf clubs from China and disguised them as genuine products to sell on secondhand trading sites was caught by customs authorities.

Incheon Customs under the Korea Customs Service announced on the 6th that it had detected Mr. A for violating the Customs Act and Trademark Act and sent him to the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office without detention.

Provided by Korea Customs Service

During the inspection of cargo declared as sticks, Incheon Customs confirmed that golf clubs, not the declared products, were contained in the cargo. After further investigating the transaction records of domestic importers, they uncovered 764 sets of counterfeit golf clubs smuggled by Mr. A.

It was revealed that since August 2021, Mr. A had purchased counterfeit golf clubs of famous brands sold on major Chinese online shopping platforms at $400 to $800 per set (20-25% of the genuine product price) and imported them into Korea.

In particular, Mr. A evaded customs inspections by distributing the golf clubs under the personal customs clearance codes of family members and acquaintances. He exploited the fact that items for personal use under $150 can be imported through simplified customs procedures (list clearance method) without formal import declaration.

In this process, Mr. A used product names similar to golf clubs, such as hiking sticks and stainless steel pipes, on the customs clearance lists submitted to customs, and falsely declared prices below $150.

Also, when importing 3 to 4 sets of golf clubs and a formal import declaration was unavoidable, he smuggled by reducing the quantity and price to one set in the declaration.

According to Incheon Customs, the smuggled counterfeit golf clubs were disguised as genuine products and sold at 50-65% of the genuine price through a famous domestic secondhand trading platform and his own company website. It is estimated that Mr. A earned more than 300 million KRW in illegal profits through this.

The counterfeit golf clubs detected were models preferred by beginner golfers in Korea during the COVID-19 outbreak, and tests conducted by the Sports Industry Technology Center showed significant performance differences compared to genuine products.

An official from Incheon Customs said, “Recently, illegal activities such as smuggling counterfeit goods using maritime express cargo at Incheon Port have been continuously occurring,” and added, “Incheon Customs plans to strengthen crackdowns through monitoring and information analysis in response.”