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| A campaign poster for "Fake Never" / Courtesy of Musinsa |
Fashion brands launch 'Fake Never' campaign to raise awareness of soaring counterfeits on its open market
By Kim Jae-heun
Musinsa, Korea's largest fashion goods sales platform, and the Korea Brand Fashion Association consisting of 50 small fashion brands are calling on Naver to clamp down on sales of fake goods on its open market, according to industry officials Friday.
The latest calls are coming from Musinsa, Korea's largest fashion goods sales platform, as well as affiliated small brands working together to establish the Korea Brand Fashion Association.
The association, which is being launched by 50 small fashion brands as well as Musinsa, aims to eradicate counterfeit sales on open market platforms and protect fashion brands' intellectual property rights. Musinsa has launched the Fake Never campaign with its affiliated small brands criticizing Naver's negligent stance on the soaring number of counterfeits sold on its open market.
"Korean fashion brands have garnered much attention overseas thanks to the peaking popularity of K-dramas and K-pop, but there are still many counterfeit items sold on open markets online, which disrupts the growth of the local fashion industry," a Musinsa official said. "Naver has to take responsibility to get to the root of the problem."
According to the Korea Federation of Textile Industries, the size of the domestic fashion market grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in 2022 to reach 45.77 trillion won ($35.2 billion).
New street and casual fashion brands beloved by people in their 20s and 30s have been making strides in particular, but their accomplishments continue to be tainted by ripoffs. Infringement of fashion intellectual property is no longer a problem of luxury brands only.
"There are already a lot of local fashion brands' fake products sold imprudently on the open market platforms of Naver and Coupang. One of the individual sellers on Naver's Smart Store platform has even sold counterfeits through live commerce service recently," the official said.
The fashion giant also pointed out the counterfeit issue is most prominent on open market services as they allow third-party sellers to sell fake goods freely without undergoing a strict appraisal process.
"Naver has been closing its eye to the sales of counterfeit fashion in its Smart Store platform, which is ironic as it emphasizes the importance of eradicating fake goods on its resell platform Kream," the official said.
Musinsa said it will invite more fashion firms to participate in its Fake Never campaign once the Korea Brand Fashion Association is launched within the coming months.
"We only have 50 members for the association now, but, after we get approval from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy for its establishment, we will invite up to 100," Musinsa said.
In response, Naver said, "All platforms face the challenge of dealing with the distribution of counterfeit goods, which must be resolved through verification by trademark and brand rights holders."
It added, "Naver is at the forefront of preventing the sale of counterfeit goods by establishing a collaboration system with trademark and brand rights holders and conducting mystery shopper activities."
The company cited its Purchase Protection Measures which are used to protect buyers from the sales of counterfeit products and to increase trust in sellers.
"We collaborate with brand rights holders to conduct product authentication and prevent the targeted products from being listed on Naver Shopping during the authentication process," the company added.
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