kr.bev-cuvee.org · AS OF 2026-11-10

South Korea

The business-to-business (B2B) hub for beverage alcohol: the trade rulebook for beverage alcohol, country by country, each section with its official sources.

The Library door agent-bev.ai Buyers' door bevgtin.ai Hub node · kr-bev.ai

As of 2026-11-10

Market status

Licensed. Private operators can trade alcoholic beverages only within the liquor sales licence or deemed-licence route that applies to their premises and activity. Importers also fall within the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) imported-food controls before customs clearance. This classification reflects a private licensed channel rather than an official retail monopoly.

Sources

Who can trade

Import: A business importing and selling imported food, including alcoholic beverages, must register with MFDS. Overseas manufacturing facilities must be registered before import declaration, and MFDS import declaration and inspection apply before customs clearance. A liquor importer also needs the liquor sales licence route that permits direct import and onward sale within the scope attached to the licence.

Wholesale and distribution: A liquor sales business, including sales brokerage and on-premise supply, is licensed per place of sale by the competent tax office unless a deemed-licence 신고 route applies. National Tax Service rules describe comprehensive liquor wholesalers as buying directly from manufacturers or importers and selling to retailers or deemed sellers. Liquor importers import foreign liquor directly and may sell to authorised wholesale, broker, retail and deemed-retail channels as designated. Import-specialist wholesalers buy imported liquor from importers and sell to retailers or deemed sellers.

Business-to-business (B2B) online sale: Telecommunication sale is separately controlled under National Tax Service notices. The sourced notices cover permitted communication-sale routes, especially traditional liquor and approved record-keeping channels; they do not by themselves establish an open B2B platform route for ordinary imported beer, wine, spirits or cider. Specific B2B-only online platform, broker and payment treatment: Not yet sourced.

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Customs and duty

Tariff headings: Beer: 2203. Beer. Wine: 2204. Wine of fresh grapes, including fortified wine, and grape must. Cider: 2206. Other fermented beverages; Korea Customs Service (KCS) lines include apple wine/cider under this heading. Spirits: 2208. Undenatured ethyl alcohol below the heading threshold, spirits, liqueurs and other spirituous beverages.

Import duty: Use the KCS tariff database and the full ten-digit Harmonized System of Korea (HSK) commodity code. Customs duty depends on classification, origin and any applicable free trade agreement preference or other tariff measure. The four-digit heading is not enough to determine the payable duty.

Excise: Liquor tax applies to alcoholic beverages. The person importing liquor who is liable to pay customs duty is also the liquor-tax taxpayer. Beer, takju and neutral spirits use quantity-based tax bases, while wine/fruit wine, yakju, cheongju, spirits and other liquor categories use price/ad valorem categories under the Liquor Tax Act. Beer has a specific volume basis and a temporary draught-container relief for qualifying imports declared by 2026-12-31. No money amounts are stated here.

Territorial treatment: The official tariff and liquor-tax sources reviewed are national. Special territorial, free-zone or duty-free alcohol treatment: Not yet sourced.

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Labelling

Required language(s): Mandatory food information is in Korean. Chinese characters or foreign languages may be combined or written alongside Korean, subject to the Food Labelling Standards; imported foods, registered trademarks and alcoholic beverage product names have specific presentation flexibility.

Mandatory warnings: Alcoholic beverage sales containers must bear the health warning wording determined under the National Health Promotion Act framework. The law also adds drunk-driving warning wording and a graphic for alcoholic beverages released from a manufacturing place or import-declared after 2026-03-19.

Alcohol strength: Alcoholic beverages must state ethanol or alcohol content.

Allergens: General food allergen rules require declaration of listed allergenic ingredients, including sulphites above the prescribed sulphur dioxide threshold. The standards contain a special omission rule for neutral spirits and distilled liquors, but post-distillation ingredients and additives still need product-level review.

Origin: Imported goods that are origin-marking targets must show origin under the Foreign Trade Act. KCS guidance allows country-of-origin marking in Korean, including Chinese characters, or English.

Wine particulars: Korean alcohol labelling rules treat grape wine within fruit wine; fruit wines may be described by raw material, grape wine may be described by colour, and carbon dioxide content must be indicated when present. Additional wine-specific label particulars beyond the sourced fruit-wine rules: Not yet sourced.

Label registration: Imported alcoholic beverages are handled through MFDS imported-food declaration and inspection, and inspection can consider labelling and packaging. Separate beer/wine/spirits/cider label registration or pre-approval number: Not yet sourced.

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Age and sale limits

Legal purchase age: Alcohol may not be sold, lent, distributed or provided free of charge to juveniles. A juvenile is a person under 19, excluding a person for whom 1 January of the year in which they turn 19 has arrived.

Age checks and notices: A person selling drugs and articles harmful to juveniles, including alcoholic beverages, must verify age and identity. Retail alcohol businesses must display the prohibition on sale, lending or distribution to juveniles in the business establishment, including automatic or unmanned vending equipment where applicable.

Sale-hour and channel limits: National sale-hour limits for ordinary licensed wholesale or retail: Not yet sourced.

Regional layers: Local governments may designate no-drinking zones by ordinance for places where many people gather or pass. These are consumption-place controls and do not establish a sourced wholesale trading-hour rule. Detailed municipal sale-hour or dry-area rules: Not yet sourced.

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Protected names

Protection framework: Domestic geographical indications for traditional liquors use the Traditional Liquor Industry Promotion Act, with the geographical-indication registration system applying by reference to the Agricultural and Fishery Products Quality Control Act. Korea’s free trade agreements also protect listed geographical indications for agricultural products, foodstuffs, wine, aromatised wine and spirits, with use tied to the applicable specification.

Verified examples: Jindo Hongju, Gochang Bokbunja wine and Seocheon Sogokju appear in official domestic geographical-indication status materials. Champagne and Bordeaux are official wine examples in Korea-European Union materials, and Cognac and Scotch Whisky are official spirit examples or listed protected names. These examples are not exhaustive. Protected beer-name example: Not yet sourced.

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GTIN authority

Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) member organisation: GS1 Korea, operated by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Distribution & Logistics Promotion Institute. It acts as Korea’s GS1 representative institution and issues GS1 distribution-standard codes/GTINs.

Sources

Not yet sourced

Specific B2B-only online platform, broker and payment treatment; special territorial, free-zone or duty-free alcohol treatment; additional wine-specific label particulars beyond the sourced fruit-wine rules; separate beer/wine/spirits/cider label registration or pre-approval number; national sale-hour limits for ordinary licensed wholesale or retail; detailed municipal sale-hour or dry-area rules; protected beer-name example: Not yet sourced.

Library catalogue: bev-cuvee.org · this page as data: mcp.bev-cuvee.org/mcp (get_rulebook, code kr)

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