Korea’s Food Safety Ministry is set to inspect the safety of IQOS, the heat-not-burn tobacco product by Marlboro maker Philip Morris International, according to the ministry Monday.The study, to begin in August, is intended to produce an objective analysis of the health risks posed by using PMI’s IQOS system, focusing on the levels of nicotine and tar delivered by the tobacco sticks, according to the ministry. The IQOS heat-not-burn tobacco system by Philip Morris International (Philip Morris Ko

Shinsegae DF temporarily stored its duty-free products in a disabled restroom at Incheon Airport on Thursday morning due to a lack of space in the pickup area, the airport corporation and Shinsegae DF confirmed Friday, after complaints raised the previous day.“Our pickup area is much smaller than that of Lotte Duty Free or Shilla Duty Free, and the airport instructed us to temporarily keep the products in the restroom,” said a spokesperson for Shinsegae DF.Once duty-free products are purchased a

Despite excitement in the market over the news that Samsung Electronics is set to become the most profitable company in the world, executives at the tech giant’s Seoul office remain wary about the company’s future, citing its top leadership vacuum.On Friday, Samsung Electronics announced that it had reached 60 trillion won ($51 billion) in estimated revenues and 14 trillion won in operating profits in the second quarter, the highest levels in the company’s history. Employees walk past the Samsun

Korean Air’s headquarters in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, was raided by police on Friday morning related to suspicions that the company’s chairman embezzled funds allocated for the construction of a new hotel in Incheon to use for the decoration of his private home.The raid, which targeted Korean Air’s materials division, led to the seizure of contracts and financial documents related to the hotel’s construction process.  Korean Air headquarters in Gangseo-gu, Seoul (Korean Air)Chairman Cho Yang-ho’s home

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has begun an investigation into Pizza Hut Korea for alleged unfair changes to its contracts with its franchisees, according to news reports Thursday. (Pizza Hut Official Website)Franchisees of Pizza Hut are claiming that the company in May unilaterally changed its manual governing contracts with its franchisees, putting additional cost burdens on them and reserving the right to void contracts if they did not follow these guidelines. Although the watchdog does

The long-awaited second passenger terminal of Korea‘s main gateway airport has finally completed its duty-free operator allotments after a tumultuous process.After over three months of bidding, the operators for the duty-free areas at the new terminal were awarded to Shilla Duty Free for perfumes and cosmetics, Lotte Duty Free for liquor and tobacco, and Shinsegae DF for fashion and accessories.The tenders came at an inopportune time, directly in the aftermath of public outcry over allegations o

MCDONALD’S KOREA SUED -- A mother named Choi Eun-ju holds a press conference outside the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Wednesday, after filing a suit against McDonald’s Korea claiming that her daughter had contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome after eating a McDonald‘s Happy Meal last September. Her attorney said that the condition is usually contracted after consuming undercooked ground meat, but McDonald’s Korea claims that patties could not be undercooked beca

Domestic beer brands are challenging the dominance of imported beer in the Korean market with new products featuring low prices and light, clean tastes that they hope will stand out against global top brands.Such moves are proving effective, with domestic beer gaining a majority of beer sales in June, at above 50 percent, up from an average of 47.8 percent for the first five months of 2017, according to discount chain E-mart, citing its stores’ statistics.Standing in the lead are domestic powerh

Hanwha’s Galleria Duty Free said through a disclosure Monday that it will be returning its license to operate a duty-free outlet at Jeju International Airport, ceasing its operations there on Aug. 31.“We asked Korea Airports Corp. repeatedly to lower the rent costs at Jeju Airport temporarily, but in the end decided to close down our operations there,” a spokesman for Hanwha Galleria said. Hanwha’s five-year license at Jeju Airport was valid until April 2019.The outlet at Jeju Airport had been s

Mexico’s flagship air carrier began operating direct flights between Seoul and Mexico City on Monday, creating the first direct route to Central America from Incheon International Airport.“This year, in a way, can be described as an Asian expansion year,” Aeromexico’s Chief Revenue Officer Anko Van der Werff told reporters at the Shilla Seoul the same day.The airline will use a Boeing 787 Dreamliner on the route, which will fly out of Incheon four times a week.  Representatives from Korea and Me

E-commerce platform 11st said Monday it has partnered with Namyang Dairy Products to release an instant reordering button for baby formula, creating the first Korean equivalent of Amazon’s Dash button. Models pose with the Namyang Now Order button from 11st. (SK Planet)The service, called “Namyang Now Order,” allows repeat customers to order and pay for prechosen baby formula simply by pushing a physical button on a 10-centimeter device.By using the device, consumers can reorder baby formula wit

(Diageo Korea)Students celebrate the completion of Diageo Korea’s eighth Cool Drinker campaign at the Digaeo Korea headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on June 30. Since 2009, Diageo Korea has been promoting responsible drinking on college campuses with student Cool Drinkers who help to raise awareness.

Companies mostly have two masters to serve: their bottom line, and public expectations for social responsibility.And the pressure to operate by certain ethical and philanthropic standards is particularly high in South Korea, where large conglomerates that drive the economy are regularly chastised by the public for allegations of unfair treatment of smaller companies or low levels of community contribution.Under the Moon Jae-in administration, which campaigned on promises to root out predatory bu

Lotte Duty Free said Thursday that it is opening its expanded World Tower store Friday, connecting stores in its Avenuel and Lotte World Tower buildings.The branch has been expanded to 17,334 square meters, making it the largest downtown duty-free store in Korea, the second largest in Asia and the third largest in the world.It houses 420 brands, increased from the existing 320, focused on the latest trends preferred by Japanese and Chinese tourists. Executives at Lotte Duty Free including CEO Ja

Freight service provider DHL Global Forwarding said Thursday that it has expanded its multimodal Asia-Europe network services to Korea in order to offer Korean companies flexibility in logistics when shipping to the European market.Through the service, shipments from Korea can travel by ferry to China, then via DHL’s rail routes across Asia to Europe. At a press conference held at The Plaza in Seoul on Thursday, DHL Global Forwarding’s CEO for North Asia Charles Kaufmann said that the rail servi

Coway’s cosmetics brand Re:NK has released a new moisturizing essence packed with real plant cells to provide a youthful boost to the skin.The Cell to Cell Essence is an anti-aging product that includes 1 million intact cells extracted from three types of plants -- everlasting, nopal and myrrh. It was developed by Coway and French University of Bordeaux's global research and development network. Coway Re:NK’s Cell to Cell Essence (Coway)“The cells are injected with a protein solution that keeps

Duty-free operator Shinsegae DF said Thursday it has teamed up with Naver to provide more convenient translation services for shoppers through Naver’s Papago app.A Shinsegae DF employee and shopper communicate using Papago. (Shinsegae DF)Papago is an app that uses artificial intelligence to understand and translate whole sentences based on the context.Naver updated its app to include useful expressions for users who are shopping at duty-free stores and opened a new section in the app specificall

Korean Air has been making aggressive moves to expand its operation in the US, most recently by joining hands with Delta Air Lines to offer more efficient connectivity between Asia and the United States through merging the two airlines’ operations in the Pacific.On June 23, the two Skyteam airlines sealed the joint venture agreement at a ceremony in Los Angeles.“Korean Air has the most routes in the Asia-Pacific region, while Delta is the world’s largest airline with an extensive network in the

A new bill seeking to apply equal taxes to heated tobacco products as those imposed on combustible cigarettes in Korea was introduced to the National Assembly earlier this month, claiming that all harmful tobacco products must be regulated the same way. IQOS from Philip Morris International (PMI)According to the National Assembly‘s Bill Information System, Rep. Kim Kwang-lim of the Liberty Korea Party has prepared bills to revise three laws that govern taxation on tobacco products to allow equal

(Yonhap)Lotte’s parcel delivery service Lotte Global Logistics is seeking to find new avenues for growth after acquiring large-scale investments, sparking speculation about a merger with another Lotte affiliate to increase its presence in the highly competitive parcel delivery market.This year, Lotte Global Logistics, which was acquired by Lotte from Hyundai Group last year, landed two large-scale capital infusions including a 300 billion won ($264 million) investment arranged by private equity