Retracted August 4, 2026
We published this record and then withdrew it. It is not part of the dataset and should not be cited as current. The page is still here because the record id is in circulation, and a dead link would tell you less than this does.
Retired against collector run commerce-20260804223321: quartiles are 30% and 16% apart, the bands do not overlap. The claim held on the sample available when it was written and does not hold on this one.
Replaced by The K-beauty price gap holds at every rung of the ladder.
The K-beauty price gap sits in the tails
The price gap between Korean-origin and US-origin beauty brands selling into the United States is not a gap in the working range: the middle half of the ladder is effectively the same, $19 to $38.49 for Korean-origin storefronts against $20 to $38 for US-origin ones, while the median top-of-catalogue price is $131.20 against $250.
Confidence when withdrawn: 59 of a possible 90Tier B, systematic first-party observation. Nothing at this tier is allowed past 90, however good it looks.
Held until August 4, 2026The last day we stood behind this. Withdrawn August 4, 2026.
Held since August 4, 2026What this market measurably favours. The earliest date we are willing to say this held. It may well have been true before that; we do not backdate a record past the evidence we have read. Retracted, version 2.
The test this entry failed
A repeat run finds the Korean-origin and US-origin interquartile bands more than 15% apart at either quartile.
Written before the record was published, and it is what retired it. Nothing here was decided after the fact.
What it rested on
- Tier Bobserved-webn = 20
orbt: Orbt Index commerce collector, run commerce-20260804203300
Median of storefront quartiles. KR n=13, US n=7. Quartiles computed per storefront over every priced variant in the feed. Run commerce-20260804203300.
Read 2026-08-04 · CC BY · page hash
ca0d42e3533f
History
- v2retired
Retired against collector run commerce-20260804223321: quartiles are 30% and 16% apart, the bands do not overlap. The claim held on the sample available when it was written and does not hold on this one.
What it said before
The price gap between Korean-origin and US-origin beauty brands selling into the United States is not a gap in the working range: the middle half of the ladder is effectively the same, $19 to $38.49 for Korean-origin storefronts against $20 to $38 for US-origin ones, while the median top-of-catalogue price is $131.20 against $250.
- v1created
Derived from collector run commerce-20260804203300.
Append-only. Nothing in this list is edited or removed once written, including the entries that record our own mistakes. Every change to every record is on the corrections page, and the same log is in entries.json under revisions.
If you cited this
Remove it. The id omr:kr-us:the-korean-price-gap-sits-in-the-tails is no longer in entries.json; it is in retired.json with the date and the reason, so an automated check can tell a retraction from a deletion. If you need to reference the withdrawal itself, this page is the permanent record of it.
Read next
Also true of the United States
What else we hold on this market, heaviest first.
- United StatesFacility registration renews every two years
- United StatesEvery product listed with FDA, ingredients included
- United StatesFDA can recall a cosmetic and suspend the facility
- United StatesA Korean plant is a US facility under MoCRA
- United StatesSerious adverse events report in 15 business days
- United StatesFDA registration is not FDA approval
Everything we hold on United StatesEvery record for this corridor