SEOUL, Sept 25 — Jin of BTS is in the spotlight once again, but this time it’s not for music.
A liquor brand he co-founded with celebrity restaurateur Paik Jong-won is being investigated by South Korea’s National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service over allegations of misleading product information, according to The Korea Times.
Industry officials told South Korean English language daily that the agency, which operates under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, recently received a consumer complaint about IGIN highball drinks made by Jini’s Lamp, the company launched by Jin and Paik in 2022.
The case has since been transferred to the agency’s regional office in Yesan, South Chungcheong Province, for further review.
The controversy surfaced after an anonymous user revealed on a popular online forum that they had filed a complaint, claiming the IGIN highballs carried “risks of misleading consumers regarding its origin labelling.”
The complaint specifically targets the brand’s plum and watermelon-flavoured gins.
While Jini’s Lamp’s website stated that the drinks used plum extract from Chile and watermelon extract from the United States, other product information reportedly described the ingredients as domestically sourced.
“There were websites that repeatedly said those drinks used domestic extracts. If the products used a single ingredient from outside the country, such a claim is false,” the consumer wrote, as quoted by The Korea Times.
The complainant, who called Jin an “artist with global influence,” also urged him to “take the matter seriously in terms of legal and ethical responsibility,” adding that “the agency’s special judicial police officers should conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with the law and principles, and proceed with criminal charges and referral to prosecutors if violations are confirmed.”
According to The Korea Times, the disputed products are currently unavailable on Jini’s Lamp’s and Paiksooldoga’s online stores.
Jini’s Lamp has acknowledged that inaccurate information was displayed online for a period of time but says the error has since been corrected.
Meanwhile, Paik’s company Theborn Korea clarified that his investment in Jini’s Lamp is a personal one and “irrelevant to its current business operation,” The Korea Times reported.
