'Butterless Butterbeer' Urban Zakapa's Park Yongin Sentenced to 2 Years Probation

Park Yong-in, a member of the group Urban Zakapa and CEO of Virtue Company, who was prosecuted for selling "butterless butter beer," was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial.

Yonhap News

On the 18th, Judge Lee Min-ji of the Seoul Eastern District Court Criminal Division 12 sentenced Park, who was charged with violating the Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods, to 8 months in prison with a 2-year suspension. The Virtue Company corporation was fined 10 million won.

The judge stated, "The defendants prominently displayed the word 'BEURRE' (butter) on the product despite the absence of butter and advertised that a specific flavor was based on butter."

Park and Virtue Company were indicted on charges of false and exaggerated advertising that misled consumers on social media (SNS) and other platforms into believing that butter was included in the products while selling four types of beer at convenience stores from June 2022 to January 2023. Park advertised on Instagram that each product had a butter-based flavor.

Earlier, in March 2023, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety issued a prior notice of a one-month suspension of beer manufacturing to the manufacturer Buruguru and filed a criminal complaint against the distributor Virtue Company and others for violating the Food Labeling and Advertising Act and exaggerated advertising. Subsequently, in December 2023, the prosecution indicted Park and Virtue Company on charges of false and exaggerated advertising. The manufacturer Buruguru was cleared in September 2023 due to insufficient evidence.