Amore Pacific Review and Profile

Amore Pacific (AMOREPACIFIC Corporation) is a South Korean beauty and personal-care company headquartered in the Yongsan district of Seoul.

Amore Pacific traces back to 1945, when founder Suh Sung-whan established a cosmetics business that became Pacific Corporation, and is today South Korea's largest cosmetics company.

Its portfolio includes Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Innisfree, Hera, IOPE, Etude, Primera, Mamonde, Hanyul, Aestura, Vital Beauty, and COSRX, sold in Asia, North America, Europe, and other markets.

Amore Pacific is led by Chairman and CEO Suh Kyung-bae, the founder's son, and CEO Kim Seung-hwan.

The company stock trades on the Korea Exchange. In the US, Amore Pacific operates through AMOREPACIFIC US, Inc.

Amore Pacific U.S. mainly operates through retail and online channels rather than direct sales.

Amore Pacific introduced door-to-door sales in Korea in September 1964, and the channel remains one of its oldest distribution routes. Its independent saleswomen, originally called "Amore Ladies" and now known as Amore Counselors, sell premium products such as Sulwhasoo, Hera, and Vital Beauty through one-on-one consultations.

Counselors contract with independently owned sales agencies, called sole representation stores, which hold sales agreements with Amore Pacific.

The company reported about 37,000 counselors in 2015, and a March 2026 report put the number at 18,930 counselors working through 397 branches. In 2024 the company launched Edith Shop, an online platform for beauty sellers called Editors, which had about 22,000 active Editors, many of whom also work as counselors. Counselors earn a margin on full-price personal sales, but Amore Pacific has not published a commission schedule or compensation plan for its counselors.

Income Disclosures:

Npros was unable to find a published income disclosure for Amore Pacific.

In 2014, the Korea Fair Trade Commission ordered Amore Pacific to stop the practice and fined it 500 million won, finding that from 2005 through June 2013 the company had moved 3,482 door-to-door salespeople between independent sales agencies, or into company-run branches, against the wishes of agency owners. In June 2017 the Seoul High Court canceled both the corrective order and the fine, ruling that the commission had relied on an incorrect factual premise and had not set a clear standard. In a separate criminal case brought by prosecutors over the same practice, the Seoul Central District Court in September 2016 convicted the company of violating Korea's fair-trade law and fined it 50 million won, and two former executives received suspended prison sentences.

In April 2020 the Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Amore Pacific Group and its affiliate Cosvision 48 million won each, a total of 96 million won, for unfair support to an affiliate involving fee-free deposits that helped Cosvision obtain low-interest loans. The matter did not involve the direct-selling channel.

Amore Pacific does not appear on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's October 2021 Notice of Penalty Offenses list concerning money-making opportunities or on the April 2023 list concerning product-claim substantiation.