Whose Name Goes on Your Korean Business Card as a Foreign Brand

Your last name. When a Western brand goes local in Korea with us, the name that appears on the business card, the entity paperwork, and — where the structure allows — the seller account is the client's own. Kontactic runs the operation; it does not put itself in your place. That is not a courtesy. It follows directly from the legal relationship each tier is built on, where you own the entity, the products, and the liability, and we act as your agent.

This is one of those small questions that comes up on a founder call and turns out to sit on top of a much larger design decision. So it is worth answering precisely.

The short answer: the named party is you, not us

The short answer is that Kontactic never takes ownership of your entity, your products, or your assets — so it is never the "owner" name on the things that matter. Across all three service tiers, the client retains ownership of all inventory and brand assets, and Kontactic acts as the client's operating agent, not as a distributor, joint venture partner, or equity holder.

That principle is written into each agreement in plain terms. Under our IoR & SoR service (Spark), the relationship is a consignment selling arrangement (위탁판매대행): you are the consignor and owner of all products, and product ownership and product-level liability rest with you at all times — before, during, and after the sale. Under the managed tiers (Flame and Blaze), the relationship is an operating agency arrangement (운영대행): you own the Korean entity and all associated assets, and Kontactic is the authorized operating agent.

Where the name shows up — and where it depends on the tier

Whose name appears is not one answer. It splits along three surfaces: the business card, the entity filings, and the seller account. The first two are always the client's. The third depends on which tier you run.

Here is the honest breakdown.

• The business card. Our card spec is straightforward: front carries the Kontactic logo, a name in English and Korean (for example, "CEO Isaac Lee 이이삭"), mobile, office number, email, and address, printed at the Korean standard 90mm × 50mm. When we operate on your behalf, the representative name printed is the person actually accountable for the business — your representative — not a stand-in.
• The entity filings. Under Flame and Blaze, a Korean limited company (유한회사) is established under your ownership. You are the entity owner; Kontactic holds no stake. The registered representative and the ownership on file are yours.
• The seller account. This is the one that flips. Under Spark, your products are listed and sold on Korean platforms (primarily Coupang) under Kontactic's seller accounts, because Kontactic is the Seller of Record. Under Flame and Blaze, the Seller of Record is your own entity, so the account sits under your company.

If you want the deeper mechanics of who is legally accountable on the customs side of that same question, we walk through it in who is the Importer of Record when you sell on Coupang.

Why the seller account name flips between Spark and the managed tiers

The seller account is the one surface that changes, and the reason is structural, not stylistic. It comes down to who is the Importer of Record (IoR) and Seller of Record (SoR).

Spark is an IoR & SoR infrastructure service — analogous in concept to a Merchant of Record service for SaaS, but built for physical-product import and e-commerce selling in Korea. It lets you sell locally without establishing a Korean entity. To make that possible, Kontactic's own Korean entity serves as the Importer of Record and Seller of Record, and the products are listed under Kontactic's seller accounts. So on the platform, the visible seller is Kontactic — while you remain the owner of the products and the party responsible for product claims and advertising content.

Flame and Blaze work the other way. A Korean entity is set up under your ownership, and that entity is both the IoR and the SoR. Your company holds the seller account, files under its own tax registration, and appears as the seller.

The distinction founders should hold onto: the Seller of Record can be Kontactic (under Spark) or your entity (under Flame and Blaze), but inventory ownership is the client in all three tiers, and entity ownership is either non-existent for the client (Spark, where you have no entity) or fully the client's with no Kontactic stake (Flame and Blaze). If you are weighing the tradeoffs of that choice more broadly, the agency vs IoR vs entity comparison lays out how the three models actually differ in practice.

What stays yours regardless of the name on the account

Even under Spark — where the seller account is Kontactic's — the parts that determine legal exposure stay with you. This is the point founders most often get backwards.

Two things in particular:

1. Product-level liability. You bear sole responsibility for any claims, disputes, regulatory actions, penalties, or liability arising from advertising content, product claims, and marketing materials — regardless of whether that content was created by you, provided to Kontactic, or jointly developed. Even when Kontactic produces creatives under the managed tiers, they are subject to your approval and you hold full responsibility for product claims, substantiation, and regulatory exposure.
2. Operational cost funding. All operational costs — inventory procurement, international shipping, platform fees, advertising spend — are ultimately borne by you. Under Spark they are deducted from settlement funds; under Flame and Blaze they are funded from the entity's revenue or paid directly by you. We cover exactly how that money moves in who pays for what in Korea.

In our experience, the confusion happens because the visible seller name (Kontactic, under Spark) and the accountable party (you, always) can differ. That gap is intentional infrastructure, not a loophole. Kontactic provides the import and selling authority; you keep the ownership and the responsibility.

Common questions

If Kontactic is the Seller of Record under Spark, does Kontactic own my products? No. Under Spark's consignment selling arrangement (위탁판매대행), you remain the consignor and owner of all products at all times. Kontactic does not take ownership of your products at any point — it acts as the consignment selling agent.

Under Flame or Blaze, whose name is on the Korean entity? Yours. The Korean limited company (유한회사) is established under your ownership, and Kontactic holds no stake in it. You are the entity owner and the registered representative.

Whose name goes on the business card? The representative who is actually accountable — your representative. The card carries the Kontactic logo and standard contact details, but the named person is the one responsible for the business, not a Kontactic substitute.

Does Kontactic become a partner or equity holder in my business? No. Across all tiers, Kontactic is your operating agent — not a distributor, reseller, joint venture partner, or equity holder. The Importer of Record explainer covers the related question of who is legally accountable at the border.