In the official live, they openly emphasized 'fake'... "No problem"
Experts say, “Possible violation of Design Protection Act and Unfair Competition Prevention Act”
Amore, troubled by counterfeit cosmetics from China...must set an example
[Edaily Reporter Moon Da-ae]
**[ Anchor ]**
Amore Pacific (090430), the number one cosmetics company in Korea, was found to have lured customers with ‘counterfeit’ free gifts. Although they claim that it is not a copy of a specific product, they actually promoted it on live shopping by saying that it has the same design as a luxury product. Experts judged that there was enough potential for a problem. There are criticisms that the performance rebound is excessive marketing. This is reporter Moon Da-ae.
**[ reporter ]**
On the left is the ‘Quilted Bag’ from H&M Group’s premium fashion brand COS, and on the right is the ‘Embo Bag’, a free gift bag used for promotions by Amore Pacific’s Laneige.
COS’s quilted bag is also known as the ‘Blackpink Jenny bag’ and is a representative bag of the famous COS. This shoulder bag is made from recycled polyester, and the entire bag has a soft quilted texture. It features a unique embossed design and round curved shape, and its representative color is sky blue, so it is also called ‘Cloud Bag’.
The bags produced by Amore are also similar to Course's unique embossed design, color, and size. If placed side by side, there is a high risk of mistaking them for bags of the same brand.
Since last March, Laneige has held a large-scale event to give away bags to promote its flagship product, Water Bank. We used this to attract customers not only through major online channels such as Amore's official mall and Olive Young, but also through live shopping broadcasts.
“Do you think of the C brand (COS) bag? This is the bag that the celebrity whose name starts with J (Jenny) carries every day at the airport. It has the same design (as the COS bag)...”
Live shopping openly emphasized that the course was a ‘counterfeit’, but Amore said there was no problem. An Amore official said, “It was just produced in the bag style, which is a recent trend, and did not imitate a specific brand. This was marketing conducted as part of an effort to ease Laneige’s performance.”
Amore bags, which were produced in limited quantities, are currently sold out through word of mouth, and are being sold at oil prices on the second-hand market due to their great popularity.
Experts pointed out that there was a possibility of violating the ‘Design Protection Act’ and the ‘Unfair Competition Prevention Act’.
The Design Protection Act is a law that protects the appearance and appearance of ‘designs’, that is, physical objects and industrial products. ‘Designs that were known or publicly implemented domestically or abroad before design registration or application’ are also subject to protection, and include not only previously applied designs but also publicly known designs.
In the case of the COS quilted bag, it is not a typical bag, but a product designed through a sewing method called ‘quilting’, and as it plays a leading role in design in the market, there is a high probability that it will violate the Design Protection Act.
There is also a possibility of violating the ‘Unfair Competition Prevention Act’. It was designed to prevent unfair competition that disrupts the market. ‘Transferring, renting, displaying, importing or exporting products that imitate the shape of products manufactured by others’ is one of the acts of unfair competition.
If the well-known nature of Course Qualified Bags is acknowledged, there is ample room for problems for Amore, and gaining commercial profits from results created through the investment and efforts of others can be problematic as ‘misappropriation of results.’
Therefore, it was pointed out that there is a need to proactively look into violations of the Design Protection Act and, to the extent not protected by the law, to preliminary look into whether there are any violations of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
**[ Dongjin Kim / Attorney at Daeryun Law Firm ]**
“I think we need to look into whether Amore Pacific has sufficient differences from the quality design of the previous course, and whether Amore Pacific has violated (the course’s) quality rights and secured economic benefits through this. If we look at it from this perspective, there seems to be enough room for a dispute.”
In the case of design, as plagiarism is rampant and the standards are ambiguous, he emphasized that companies' self-reflection should be prioritized rather than re-establishing clear legal standards, and that consumers should be cautious along with this.
**[ Dongjin Kim / Attorney at Daeryun Law Firm ]**
“In the end, this is one of the long-standing issues in art that has always existed between the dilemma of plagiarism and development. If the National Assembly or the courts carelessly give in to one side’s victory, they will inevitably suppress the oppression of the other side. In the end, design professionals will need to make efforts to recover on their own, and it appears that this will require continued public interest and continued monitoring by the media.”
Amore is struggling with counterfeit cosmetics from China. As it is a leading K-beauty company, it seems necessary for the company to establish strict standards for itself. This is Moon Da-ae of Edaily TV.
View full article - Controversy over giving away counterfeit Amore free gifts... "It's not an imitation" vs. "It's a violation of the law"
