"Never Trade Pharmaceuticals in Person-to-Person Secondhand Transactions"

Korea Consumer Agency C2C Platform and Distribution Status Survey
571 Cases of Violations of Related Laws and Standards Over Two Months from June

With the recent activation of peer-to-peer secondhand trading, cases of selling pharmaceuticals as secondhand items have been confirmed, requiring caution.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 10th that it identified 571 cases violating relevant laws and standards after investigating the distribution status of pharmaceuticals and health functional foods traded on major C2C platforms and communities from June to July this year. The secondhand trading platforms surveyed were Danggeun, Bungaejangter, Secondwear, and Junggonara, and the online community was based on posts from Naver Cafe.

In this investigation, 67 cases of pharmaceutical sales were confirmed. Among them, 15 cases involved prescription-required specialized medicines such as obesity treatment injections. There were also 210 cases of overseas food sales without formal import declaration. According to current law, all pharmaceuticals are prohibited from being sold outside authorized places such as pharmacies, and overseas foods can only be sold by businesses registered as importers or sellers who have made formal import declarations.

There were also cases of health functional food transactions that exceeded the pilot project allowance criteria. According to the Health Functional Food Act, only those registered as sellers under the relevant law can sell health functional foods. However, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is conducting a pilot project allowing peer-to-peer transactions of products meeting certain transaction requirements on two secondhand trading platforms, Danggeun and Bungaejangter.

However, 124 cases of peer-to-peer health functional food transactions were confirmed on platforms (Secondwear, Junggonara) and communities (Naver Cafe) where this pilot project does not apply. Even on the two platforms where the pilot project applies, 170 cases of transactions violating the criteria were found among the posts.

Based on the investigation results, the Consumer Agency plans to request the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to strengthen management and supervision of peer-to-peer food and pharmaceutical transactions. A Consumer Agency official urged, "Pharmaceuticals should be purchased at authorized places such as pharmacies, and care should be taken not to engage in illegal transactions of pharmaceuticals and unregistered overseas foods," adding that "it is necessary to check government guidelines when trading health functional foods between individuals."