Dongdaemun Market turns into haven for counterfeit luxury items

“An A-class fake Bulgari watch is usually sold for 280,000 won (248 U.S. dollars). But we charge up to 600,000 won (531.44 dollars) to tourists from Japan, which is a rich country. They all buy the watches because Korean products have all the details compared with Japanese counterfeits.”

A 42-year-old merchant on the fifth floor of the Migliore Mall in Seoul`s shopping district of Dongdaemun said this while opening a black bag full of fake watches Tuesday. “Since 2010, the number of Korean customers has decreased significantly, while that of foreign customers has grown sharply,” she said. “By nationality, Japanese, Chinese and Malaysian tourists are the major buyers of counterfeit watches.”

Vendors of counterfeit products at Dongdaemun Market are upbeat as about 150,000 foreign tourists are expected to visit Korea over Japan’s “Golden Week” (April 28-May 6) and China’s Labor Day (April 29-May 1) holidays. Though the manufacturing and selling of fake goods are illegal in Korea, such products have been clandestinely traded mostly at underground markets in Itaewon, Seoul`s foreigner district, and have spread to large shopping malls at Dongdaemun Market.

On Monday and Tuesday, Dong-A Ilbo reporters visited large shopping malls at Dongdaemun Market such as Migliore, Hello APM and Good Morning City. They discovered that more than half of the general merchandise stores sold counterfeit products. At Migliore alone, 36 of 53 bag shops on the fifth and sixth floors hawked fake products.

The vendors enticed tourists by putting up catalogs of luxury goods at their entrances and hiring touts. They avoided getting caught by asking interested customers to pick products they wanted from the catalogs and showed them items taken from warehouses. With the competition to attract customers growing fierce, certain merchants rented 10 stores at once and hired more than two touts.

Their main target is foreign tourists. A vendor selling fake handbags and wallets on the seventh floor of Hello APM said, “These days, not many Korean shoppers are looking for fake goods because they`ve raised their standards. Since 2010, our major customers have been foreign tourists who come here after finding out about us through word of mouth or the Internet.” Another vendor said, “When we show a catalog to foreigners looking around with a cautious look, they easily take out their wallets.”

Certain stores have created shopping tours jointly with travel agencies. On Tuesday night, tour guides holding flags were seen teaming up with foreign tourists in groups of four or five and guiding their shopping. One merchant approached a Dong-A reporter who posed as a tour guide, asking that his store be included in the shopping tour.

kaki@donga.com aimhigh@donga.com