An agricultural corporation jointly invested in by BTS’ Jin and Baek Jong Won, the CEO of The Born Korea and a well-known television personality, has been referred to the prosecution for allegedly violating South Korea’s country of origin labeling law.
According to confirmation on November 21, the Yesan Office of the Chungnam Regional Branch of the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service (NAQS) recently transferred Paiksooldoga, formerly known as Yesandoga, and one related individual to the Hongseong branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of violating the Origin Labeling Act.
Paiksooldoga, which distributes the ‘IGIN Highball Tonic’ series produced by Jini’s Lamp, was found to have listed the “plum” and “watermelon” flavors as domestically sourced on its main product pages and online listings. The beverages were found to contain imported fruit concentrates from Chile and the United States.
Both corporations share the same CEO and were established through a joint investment by BTS‘ Jin and Baek Jong Won. Jini’s Lamp is responsible for manufacturing, while Paiksooldoga oversees distribution. The issue led to a formal complaint. The complainant stated that “Jin is an artist with significant global influence. Regardless of whether he holds legal liability, he should take moral responsibility for the fact that a corporation he invested in is suspected of violating origin labeling regulations.”
The NAQS Yesan Office stated that “an agricultural corporation that sells products online may label a processed food item as domestically sourced only if all ingredients except water, alcohol, sugars, including processed sugar products, and food additives are of domestic origin.”
The office added that it reviewed whether the company’s labeling practices could mislead consumers and whether they violated relevant laws.
Violations of the country of origin labeling law can result in imprisonment of up to seven years or fines of up to 100 million KRW (about 67,810 USD). Jini’s Lamp and Paiksooldoga released the product in December of last year. The company revised its listings to “displayed in detailed description” in September after the labeling issue was raised.
A representative from Jini’s Lamp stated that “all Jini’s Lamp products accurately state ingredient origins on the physical product labels, so there is no issue with the products themselves. However, during the online listing process, the detailed information for another flavor was mistakenly uploaded for a period of time, and the issue was immediately corrected once it was discovered.”
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