The government of South Korea has filed charges against a Korean company for counterfeiting Korean bearings being sold into Turkey.

NSC Korea Co. is charged with sourcing bearings from China, but marking and selling them as made in Korea. They were then exported to distributors in Turkey.

The Korea Trade Commission, operating under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said it has been working on the case since complaints started developing from buyers in Turkey and from the Korea Association of Machinery Industry as far back as September 2008.

KTC said NSC Korea is being fined KPW 2.3 million (USD $17,000) for the mislabeling and trade violations. It must also stop importing bearings from China.

From its investigation, the KTC determined NSC Korea has exported at least KPW 73 million ($512,000) worth of bearings into Turkey, and over a third of them were counterfeits.

The KTC said the substandard counterfeits caused problems not only for customers, but also by damaging the reputation of Korean bearing manufacturers. In addition, they said NSC Korea unfairly profited from selling the Chinese knockoff bearings, buying them in China as much as 40% cheaper than from South Korean manufacturers.